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 aâ—â— 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 câ—nclude this Head For by him were all things created and 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 things and by him all things câ—nâ—â—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
Creation of the World to this Day until now By Lodowick Muggleton c. Animadversion XII Who shall we believe of these two they both pretend the same Commission and yet Contradict but how can any Credit be given thereunto when though Reeve sayes he was awake at the receiving of it yet presently after tells us that he knew not whether he was an Immortal God or a Mortal Man what ground is there for any Belief of what Reeve himself was so far from a clear knowledge of as that he was not more unable to resolve whether he was an Immortal God or a Mortal Man then to know the Truth of all his Revelation O the willingness in men to be Blind Certainly if the Devil himself should as a Devil seek Proselytes some would follow him A few Additional Observations upon some Passages of John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton in the before-cited Books THe Spirit of Faith and Love infinitely in the Glorious Person of God overfloweth as a Fountain continually with Revelation of New Heavenly Wisdom from whence flows New Joyes and Glory to Himself T.S.T. p. 46. Observation That unto which any thing may be added cannot be said to be Perfect and consequently cannot be God but be unto whom Wisdom is renewed wanted that Wisdom before he had it and consequently was not Perfect and therefore not the True God unto whom there is no Encrease of Wisdom Power or Strength but was and is and will be forever the same Unalterable Being Infinite in Wisdom Power and all other Divine Excellencies without any Diminution or Addition The Reason why Men's Bodies in Death or after Death do Rot or Stink in the Grave and come to Dust is because there was Sin in their Bodies whilst they Lived but on the contrary if Men had no Sin in their Natures or Bodies they might Live and Dye and Naturally Rise again by their own Power in their own Time T.S.T. p. 33. Observ O the Exceeding Folly and Blindness of this Sottish Man Why should Sin only cause the Body to Rot Stink and go to Dust Does not the Scripture and Reeve himself in his T.S.T. pag 44. give another Reason namely That what came from Dust is that which must go to Dust besides If the Flesh of Beasts is capable of Dying Rotting and going to Dust who never Sinn'd why should not man have Dyed and gone to Dust though he had never Sinn'd For though there is a vast Difference betwixt Men and Beasts in reference to their Souls and Bodies too so far as may concern the distinction of Kinds yet as to their being lyable to one and the same External Casualities and Sufferings by Hunger Thirst Sickness Death and Corruption no man can rationally contradict But above all this deserves our Observation That since Reeve is Dead Rotten and gone to Dust he was not cleansed from Sin as he is said to have pretended but by Reason of his Wickedness Death holds him in the Grave and consequently he cannot have been God's Last Witness whose Witnesses he hath alwayes cleansed from that against which they were to Witness And it is further evident That Sin is not the cause of Men's Bodies crumbling into Dust from Reeve's own words who saith The Most High God by his Vnsearchable Wisdom hath Decreed that all Light of Life in man shall become Dead Dust or Earth D.L.G. p. 17. So that God's Decree and not Man's Sin in his own sence must be the Reason of such Conversion and Corruption Therefore you may know that the Lord 's Reasoning with the Jews was only by his Prophets which were Rational Men like unto themselves which were sent to Convince those Stony-Hearted Jews by declaring the Glorious God and his Spiritual Truth unto them in the Ballance of their Own Reason D.L.G. p. 117. Observ It is remarkable with what unusual Nonsence and Contradiction he proceeds in his whole Affair since herein he Contradicts one of his main Foundation Principles namely That God hath not in his Glorious Spirit one Motion of Reason inherent nor yet the Elect of God as may be seen D.L.G. p. 18. T.S.T. p. 17. Whereas its manifest unto all men who would not deny themselves the use of their Understandings That none can properly reason of any Subject unto whom Reason cannot be or is not inherent so that if God did both Reason with the Jews and his Prophets were Rational Men then may we safely conclude That Reason is Inherent to God and his Elect Children and that Pure Reason is not inconsistent with or distinct from the Nature of Love and Faith not only because it is most Rational to believe in and love God most uprightly but because John Reeve himself that great Enemy to all sober Reason makes it the Ballance in which the Prophets Declaration of the Glorious God and his Spiritual Truth should be weighed Again I Declare from the Holy Spirit The Lord spake by Voice of words to his Three Commissioners which he hath sent unto the World yea I know God the Father spake unto Moses as a Man speaks unto his Friend and I know that God spake unto the Apostles in the Person of his Son because I know the Lord God spake unto me in the Person of the Holy Ghost only the two former Witnesses saw the Person of God in Part Visibly but I saw the Glory of his Person Invisibly or within me because I am the Messenger of the Holy Invisible Spirit T.S.T. p. 35. Observ Upon all this I make my following Observations as regular as this Irregular Confused Matter will permit me First Then I would fain know how he came to this Mighty Confidence in God's speaking to Moses for it is in no part of his Commission and Muggleton sayes Moses set the Cart before the Horse and they both of them despise the Scripture in comparison of their own Writings Secondly Though God might 〈…〉 the Person of his Son to his Apostles yet I utterly deny upon Reeves Principles that the Lord Jesus could speak unto him in the Person of the Holy Ghost because this would necessarily imply a Trinity of Persons 〈…〉 by him elsewhere absolutely denyed therefore the Lord Jesus could speak to him in no other Person then his own if at all Thirdly If God spake to J. Reeve by Voice of Words because he affirms him to have so spoken to Moses and the Apostles then may we plainly infer that God should as well have shewn his Person unto J.R. as he believes him to have done to Moses and the Apostles since if he did not decline to utter words to the Carnal Ear in this third Commission as is pretended any more then in the two former 〈◊〉 is no Reason in the World why John Reeve's Carnal Eye should not have had equal Priviledg with the former Commissioners in Visibly be holding Gods Person also but since he makes God so differ to in the one we ought the less to believe him in the other
his Eternal Spirit yet without a Body Face or Tongue or a Majestical Person like unto Earthly Monarchs he could not possibly have spoken distinct words nor his Glory have been perfect D.L.G. p. 106. Animadversion VIII If that which is requisit to define or render God truly such be singly attributed to the eternal Spirit without the mention of a Body then is the Eternal Spirit the Invisible God as they themselves prove If the Eternal Spirit be nothing else then Crowns of Immortal Glory and that it is the Invisible God whose Power created all things and if all Wisdom Glory and Power proceed ONLY from this Invisible Eternal Spirit as they say then not unto a Body but unto that who ALONE has all Power Wisdom and Glory is the Godhead to be ascribed but that is unto the Invisible Spirit And if the Eternal Spirit be thus qualified how possibly can its Glory be ecclipst for want of a Body Face or Tongue Is the Eternal Spirit Crowns of Immortal Imperfect Glory And how can all Glory alone be given unto the Spirit whose Glory is imperfect without a Body He should have said From the Spirit and Body Alone proceedeth all Glory c. But this Confusion is like the rest Contradiction IX Moreover You may know That those Men called Independents Anabaptists Presbyterians are the Literal Apostolical Jews D.L.G. p. 191. Furthermore Those Anabaptist Independent Presbyterian Men which hold it Lawful to Persecute Men in their Persons and Estates upon a Spiritual account I say from the Eternal Spirit That they are for the most part the Off-spring of those Bloody-minded Jews that Crucified the Lord of Glory upon the account of Blasphemy D.L.G. p. 192. Animadversion IX That Exception should have been made before for if those that are called Independants Presbyterians and Anabaptists are Apostolical Jews and yet such as are for Persecution for Conscience are of their Race that put Christ to Death then they are not of the Apostolical but Mosaical Jews But how can they make that hold together The Apostolical Jew is one not outward in the Letter but in the Heart and in the Spirit if so either they are Independents Presbyterians or Anabaptists or else those three Opinions are come to be of theirs since at the Distance they stand they cannot be under the same Covenant and Circumcision But to be short By their declaring them whilst not their Followers Apostolical Jews we may conclude That Reeve and Muggleton count themselves none of them but Men of another Dispensation and therefore not of the Circumcision in Heart which is not according to the Letter but the Spirit beyond which Dispensation all other Pretensions are Imaginations and vain Exaltations Contradiction X. It is not thy Natural or Allegorical Whimsies that can blind the Elect nor pacifie the Judge of Life and Death within thee D.L.G. p. 168. And now I desire no other Witness to bear Record in the Consciences of Men to this Epistle whether it be Truth or no but the Everlasting Jehovah or Eternal Spiritual Jesus himself D.L.G. p. 208. Again If every man have the Spirit of Christ living in his Conscience as many men vainly imagine What then is become of the Spiritual Body of that Jesus that ascended into the Throne of his Glory in the visible sight of Men and Angels D. L.G p. 68. Animadversion X. If the Judge of Life and Death be in man then Christ unto whom all Judgment is committed is in man to justifie or condemn him therefore Christ or his Spirit or both are in man and consequently it is no Impediment to nor Denial of Christ's Ascension with a Glorified Body Neither is it vain to believe that the Spirit of Christ lives in the Consciences of Men. Observe their Folly The Judge of Life and Death is within thee again It is vain to Imagine that the Spirit of Christ lives in mens Consciences Thus they say and unsay almost in a Breath But above all That the Everlasting Jehovah and Eternal Spiritual Jesus should be in mens Consciences the true Witness and yet not be in Men Who can understand this strange Riddle Contradiction XI But you may say Did God the third day arise from the Dead by his own Power or by the Power of his Deputy Elias To which I answer He by his own Decree and Spiritual Compact with Elias and by that Spirit of Faith in his Innocent Body the which Faith dyed in his pure Body and quickened immediately and brought forth that Natural Innocent Body out of the Grave a pure Spiritual Body T.S.T. p. 32 33. Therefore whosoever saith that any other Body ascended into Glory but that very same Body of Flesh and Bones that suffered Death upon the Cross he is an Antichrist and in utter Spiritual Darkness D.L.G. p. 15. Animadversion XI If the Body dyed a Natural Body and was brought forth a Spiritual Body then unless that Spiritual Body lay'd down it self and resum'd its Natural Body as at the first it could not be the very same Body of Flesh Blood and Bone that Dyed which Ascended but it must have been a Spiritual Body In short If Natural and Spiritual be not all one as say they else-where in these Contradictions then was it no more the same Body then Natural is Spiritual and Mortal Immortal upon their own Principles and consequently Reeve and Muggleton are the Antichrists and in utter Darkness As for the three-fold Answer he gives to the Objection it is wretchedly Blaphemous 1. God's Decree 2. His Compact with Elias 3. His own Spirit of Faith To the first I reply What did the Decree avail when the Power was in another and when he that made it was dead To the second I return That God's rising lay on the side of Elias's Honesty in performing Obligation keeping Covenant and not in any other thing 3. As to that Spirit of Faith they confess it dy'd if so how did the Faith raise him Besides In whom should God have Faith in Himself He was dead In Elias He could not exercise it when in the Grave Again He that believes injoyes not fully and has Confidence in one Greater then Himself but God wants nothing and can have no Object for Faith and therefore no Faith O the Unparalell'd Sottish â—olly and Raveing Conceits of these men Contradiction XII So likewise I positively affirm against all Gainsayers under Heaven That I John Reeve am the Last Commissionated Prophet that ever shall declare Divine Secrets according to the Foundation of Truth until the Lord Jesus Christ appear on his Throne of Glory D.L.G. p. 119. A True Interpretation of all the chief Texts and Mysterious Sayings and Visions opened of the whole Book of the Revelation of St. John wherein is unfolded and plainly declared those Wonderful Deep Mysteries and Visions interpreted concerning the True God the Alpha and Omega with variety of other Heavenly Secrets which hath never been opened nor revealed to any man since the
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 lowlâ— 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 Godâ— 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
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 Sâ—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
new thing 'T is strange therefore that Moses was not rather of the two elected to represent him in Heaven who was a Figure of him on Earth But though Reeve would not tell us so I am of the mind I know the Reason of it namely That Christ did not call Moses Moses but Eli Eli when upon the Cross and I am perswaded he had no other Ground for that Conceit not considering that Eli Eli are Hebrew words importing no more Elias Elias then they do Moses Moses but My God My God as the place expresly shews us Much more might be said but let this serve Thirdly That the Immortal God could never Dye or cease to be is manifest and the contrary Blasphemously False 1. If God was he that made all things and by whom they are upheld as all believe that believe there is a God at all then had he ceased to be the Creation had ceased to have been upheld and consequently all had fallen into its first Chaos or the World can subsist without Him 2. That he whose Nature it was never to have Beginning and ever to live without Variation could never become so contrary to his own Nature and Being as to change dye or cease to be but such was the true God therefore he never dyed 3. If Saints live move and have their being in God as say Reeve and Muggleton pag. 201. D.L.G. then either God never dyed or there were no Saints when the Jews Crucified Christ or the Saints dyed too They deny them all they say God Dyed and there were Saints and they Lived Moved and had their Being in God though Dead which how all or any of them can hang together let sober People judge 4. If God dyed who lived and by whom for nothing can live of it self that had beginning from or dependance on another as had all the visible World on God therefore because all lived and was preserved that had its Being from God He from whom they had their Being could not be annihilated whilst they remained in being 4. If God was raised by Elias then either Elias was the True God or Elias the Creature was stronger then Jehovah the Great Creator Let this serve to confute and forever to overturn these idle Chimera's of those filthy Dreamers Reeve and Muggleton That this Blasphemous Conceit of the Immortal God's Mortality is not new I shall make appear 1st Valentinus is said opened to have published at Rome That Christ brought a Body down from Heaven and that he after some time passed through the Virgins Body again Noetus affirmed That the Father Son and Holy Ghost were Flesh or that one Person of the Son of Man or that Person so long since at Jerusalem to be Father Son and Spirit and that when he suffered on the Cross the Father Son and Holy Spirit dyed See Euseb his 4th Book and 10th Chap. Ireneus Epiphanius Heres 31. 57. about Anno 150. which is 1522. years since What Strange New Revelation this is Lastly I May mention another of their Tenets held at this day by all Calvinists abroad and of several Sects in these Nations namely Predestination or that God from all Eternity without any other Inducement then his own Pleasure hath decreed some for Salvation and some for Damnation contrary to which all their Obedience or Rebellion shall be in vain to alter his Determination That this Principle is Accurst by SCRIPTURE I prove First The Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him but if the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed and keep my Statutes he shall surely live he shall not dye Ez. 18.20 21. 1. If Righteousness or Wickedness are the Grounds of God's Rewarding or Punishing the Souls of men then is there no Predestination previous without consideration had to their Works but the Text affirms most plainly therefore such Decrees are denyed and disowned 2. If Man may turn from his Righteousness and Wickedness then are the Means no more inevitably predestinated for men to use then before mentioned but men may turn from either and accordingly they will be rewarded therefore no such Predestinated Damnation or Salvation Secondly For it is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the Knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.3 4. If the Apostle writ by the Spirit of God that gives to know the Mind of God then it was the Good Will of God that all men not excluding any upon a Predestination should come to the Knowledge of the Truth and be saved And consequently there is no Predestinated Restraint upon men's Understandings from knowing the Truth nor fore-appointed Bar from their enjoying the End of such True Knowledge even the Salvation of their Souls Thirdly The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 The Long-suffering of God either related to the Elect or Reprobate or Neither Not to the Elect because there is no need of fearing their Perishing Not to the Reprobate for there is no possibility of their Repentance Therefore to neither and consequently either the place is spurious or deceitful or else those kind of Elections and Reprobations are meer Phantisms Let these few Instances serve of those hundreds that might be mentioned most expresly to confirm the same That this is highly Inconsistent with REASON I briefly prove First It renders God most Vnwise to make so many thousand Creatures on purpose to Rebel against him to Kill Lye Steal Blaspheme and commit all manner of Outragious Wickedness to the grieving of his own Spirit the making him Repent he had made the World and Obstructing of his Glorious Work of Reformation Secondly It greatly Disparageth his Justice which consists in proportioning Rewards and Punishments to the Good and Evil Works of Men and overturns both by making the Eternal States necessary and unavoidable upon a Predestination without any Regard to their Works so that man is damn'd for not doing what he can't do no more then it is possible for him to break an Almighty Decree Thirdly It quite destroyes his Mercy and renders him the most Cruel of all Beings for instead of not being willing or desiring the Death of a Sinner He is here made to desire and take Pleasure in it too nay so essential is this Unutterable Cruelty to his Glory as say the Asserters of this Opinion that it would be lessened or ecclipsed without it Oh Infamous Fourthly But above all things it strikes at the very Root of God's Rectitude and Faithfulness and makes him worse then the worst of Men or Devils for whilst he sayes Your Sins have kept good Things from you as I live I delight not in the Death of a Sinner Repent and that Iniquity
art a Damned Devil remember Thomas Loe who was the Wickedst Devil that ever I knew who never went out of his bed after I Curst him P. Thy Curses are under my Feet Tho. Loe was known to be an infirm Man in his Natural Constitution as well as by his great Labours for near these sixteen years who is gone to rest But art thou not ashamed to say he never went out of his Bed who was as well as he used to be and often after abroad and when he fell sick was often up and changed his Lodging before he dyed having been ill three Weeks Is this thy Infallible Spirit that thou suggests Lyes to thy self and others M. I heard so P. Is that enough for one that pretends to be the last Witness of the High and Mighty God to say for a Lye I heard so Cover thy Face for Shame M. He writ me a Curse and he writ a very good Hand too but for all that He was a Damned Devil and thou W.P. art as arrant a Devil as he and you shall be Damn'd together P. Lodowick in this thou hast told another Lye for it was an Apprentice that writ it Where is thy Unerring Spirit now thou vile Impostor And for being Devils and Damn'd together God rebuke thee only this know that I am willing to go where he went and whither we go thou canst not come without great and unfaigned Repentance M. Just so many of you Quakers have dyed after my Curse amongst others William Smith P. This is another Notorious Lye for the man is yet Living Well Muggleton God will reckon with thee for all thy Wickedness M. Thou art a Cheat and a Deceiver W.P. my Friend spoke G.W. Muggleton have a care what thou sayst for though it is our Religion to forgive Injuries yet perhaps his Friends would question thee and make thee prove it M. I care not a Part for Him nor his Friends nor the Greatest Man in England P. Thy Black Mouth is no Slander but know Muggleton That from my Youth I have sought God and dared not willingly to abuse a Worm and as my Friend has said thou knowest there are Laws other People make use of to vindicate their Credit by but I forgive thee thereby thou mayst know the Difference betwixt our Gods and our Religions thou Revilest and possest Curses upon me I Freely Forgive thee M. I care not a TURD for you nor the Laws neither This with many more Unsavory Foul Expressions fell from his Mouth He also affirmed That God never gave a Law but to Devils and that Moses and the Israelites were so I askt him If he received a Law He said Yes I askt him for whom He said For the People of these Nations to whom he was sent I told him Thâ—â— that render'd both himself and those to whom he was sent Devils by his own Assertion In short Such Impertinency such Blasphemy such sottish Nonsense and such Vnsavory Ill-bred Expressions I don't remember to have heard from the Mouth of any man pretending to Religion If this be your Prophet you that believe in him your last Witness the only Messenger of the Spiritual Dispensation and Grand Commissioner of Heaven whom all must credit or be damned For Shame own not so manifest an Impostor so foul a Wretch so ill an Example his Arrogancy his Ignorance his Sottish Life his Cowardliness and finally his Abominable Lying spirit is far from the Holy Patient Suffering Self-denying and Heavenly Life of Christ and his Apostles who being Reviled they Blessed I therefore intreat nay warn the Reader hereof and to fear the Infinite Almighty God whose Mighty Judgments for Sin in the Consciences of Men and Women are come and not to Worship this Beast nor any Evil Thing by bowing to his dark Imaginations For know of a certain the Time is at hand when every Word Faith and Work shall be tryed that they who believe the Truth and live in it may have Rejoycing in themselves and not in another when Muggleton's airy Stories which may perhaps swell and puff up the Minds of silly People shall vanish and such as have made his Lyes their Refuge shall be swept away and their place not to be found among the Living Therefore mind the Light the Grace the Gift of God in your selves which leads to Repentance and all manner of Godly Conversation a thing Muggleton meddles not with that by it your Hearts may be sanctified and settled in the Belief of the Truth as it is plainly revealed to every particular in Christ Jesus so shall you obtain a sound Understanding and possess the Habitations of True Peace when Muggleton and his obstinate Brats shall Howl in the Lake that burns with Brimstone and Fire forever and evermore William Penn. JOHN REEVE AND LODOWICK MUGGLETON Contradicting Themselves and One Another IT can be no Wonder unto such as have impartially read thus far that these men should contradict themselves and one another who are filled in their Discourses or rather Ravings with nothing sober and consonant but Confusion heap'd upon Confusion to the astonishing of every man that is in earnest about Religion and has any due Fear and Reverence for God but because they lay it down as the Mark only of the True Commissioners of Heaven in nothing to Jar or Contradict I am the more induced to add to my own pains and the Readers in a Comparison of their Contradictions Doth not this Demonstrate those to be the Commissionated Witnessers of the Unerring Spirit that are indue with a Divine Gift to write a Volumn as large as the Bible and as pure a Language as that is with as much Variety of Matter without looking in any Writing whatsoever or HAVING ANY REAL CONTRADICTION IN IT R. M. Div. Look Glass page 112. Contradiction I. Therefore it is written Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return When the Lord spake those words he did not speak to the Flesh or outward Form or Body of the Man but he spake to the Inward Spirit or Soul that understands the words of a Spirit Look in his Transc Spiritual Treatise p. 44. Wherefore it may be queried by some What was that which entred into the Dust and brought forth Angelical Bodies was it any thing else but the Divine Nature of God himself Unto this curious Query from the true Light of Life I answer That neither the Spirit of Angels nor any other Creatures were formed of the Divine Nature but the Souls of Adam and Eve only His Divine L. Glass pag. 8. Animadversion I. If that which returns to Dust cannot be said to return to Dust unless it first came from Dust then if the Soul returns to Dust it consequently came from Dust and if from Dust then was it not formed of the Divine Nature as on the other side is affirmed and therefore a Contradiction Contradiction II. Again I declare That when the Elect are Glorified they are absolutely of the very
same Glorious Nature both in Spirit and Bodie as God is T.S.T. p. 46. Therefore the most Wise and Holy Creator created the Bodies of Angels Spiritual and their Natures Rational and he made the Body of the Man Adam Natural and his Soul Spiritual For if their Spirits and Bodies had been both of the Divine Nature then it would have been impossible for them to have been capable of any Sin or Evil no more then the Creator Himself for what would have been formed but Creators only instead of Creatures D.L.G. pag. 9 10. Animadversion II. If to be in Body and Spirit Spiritual be to be Creators then Gods and if the Saints are to be of the same Body and Spirit then they are to be Creators and consequently Gods which is absurd For if the Reason why Man was not at first made all Spiritual but the Soul Spiritual and the Body Natural was because he had been a Creator as they say which was impossible then if Man is to be of the same Body and Spirit that God is as they affirm Man is to be a Creator in the next World Monstrum Horrendum Contradiction III If the very God-head had not dyed that is If the very Soul of Christ which the Eternal Father had not dyed in the Body or with the Body to quiet or satisfie the Cry of the Guilt of Sin in Men's Spirits all men would have perished to Eternity Thus the Father and the Son was but one unseparable Person in Immortal Glory from all Eternity and became in time one unseparable Person in Mortality T.S.T. p. 25 26. If Angels and Men had been both of God's Divine Nature in their Creation then instead of their being capable to be changed into a higher or lower Condition at the Divine Pleasure of the Creator would they not rather have been Unchangeable Creators then Changeable Creatures D.L.G. p. 9. Animadversion III. If the Reason why Men and Angels are not of the Divine Nature be That they are subject to Change and that if they had been made of it they would not have been capable of Mutation into lower or higher Degrees at Divine Pleasure then because God is of that Divine Nature it is inconsistant with his Nature to Change or be Transmuted as they often speak from an higher State to a lower and so their whole conceit of the Deity 's Mortality is vain and by themselves Contradicted Contradiction IV. Again Many seeming wise men do imagine the Lord to be a vast Spirit D.L.G. p. 16. Others blasphemously say that the spirit of Man is God and that the Body only dyes These say also God is an Infinite Spirit T.S.T. p. 44. Is not that Infinite Spirit and its Glorious Properties but only one Essence or God-head Substance D.L.G. p. 106. You may know that all things are possible and very easie for an Infinite Spirit to bring to pass D.L.G. p. 114. Animadversion IV. It can be no Crime for any to believe God to be an Infinite or Vast Spirit as one while they would have it whilst presently they call the God-head Substance an Infinite Spirit and confess all things to be possible unto an Infinite Spirit O Gross Contradiction Contradiction V. I say In the Great and Notable Day of the Lord by his Decree they shall every one of them rise out of the Dust together not with the same Bodies that dyed because there was somewhat of God in those Bodies T.S.T. p. II. So likewise that Infinite Spirit abiding within the glorious Body of Christ is so unspeakably fiery Glorious that no Created Spirit of Man nor Angel is able to bear the In-dwelling Essence of it D.L.G. p. 69. Animadversion V. If something of God dwells in this Life in the Souls and Bodies of Men then it is not so fiery Glorious but it may abide in them and they not be consumed For God's Nature or Essence is irreconcileable to nothing but Sin the Righteous shall behold him Face to Face So that one while God dwells in Men another while if it should be so Man would be Consumed Behold the Self-Opposition of these Miserable Witnesses Contradiction VI. How can any Rational Wise Man possibly think that Man or any other Living Forms should ever be without a Glorious Creator to give them their Beeings at first D.L.G. p. 16. This was the Creator's very case in the matter of Creation and who dares speak against it no Spiritual Wise Man I am sure only some Lustful Persons may dispute against it though it be contrary to their own Reason when it is sober D.L.G. p. 12. I confess it is not only contrary to Reason but far above all Reasons Reach truly to understand the Mysteries of the Creation D.L.G. p. 114. Animadversion VI. If an Appeal be made to rational Men concerning the Creation by a God and if it be contrary to sober Reason not to believe so then it is not far above nor contrary to all Reason to understand the Creation for else why is it render'd by them so agreeable to Reason and an Appeal made unto Rational Men concerning it Contradiction VII Again For your Information in whose Persons the Lord by his Holy Spirit Delights to dwell T.S.T. p. 22. Whoever thou art that boastest of a God and a Christ and his Ordinances and of a Glory to come without thee in the highest Heavens if thou shouldst be left to the Pride and Envy of thy Formal spirit to condemn the Invisible Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Innocent People because they are contrary to thy Opinion I say from the Everlasting Emanuel That thou art also but a Reprobate D.L.G. p. 68 69. For in him dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily and from his Fulness we all receive and Grace for Grace If Christ or his Spirit were within men when they uttered those words all Faith or Hope in reference to Eternal Glory was vain D.L.G. p. 67 68. Animadversion VII If Christ delighteth to dwell in the Persons of his People by his Eternal Spirit and that he thereby teacheth their Souls what he requires from them as say they then it is not in vain to believe or hope though Christ or his Spirit were within as they also say nay they affirm That the Souls of the Redeemed is the Throne of God on which he now sits D.L.G. p. 46. And therefore though Christ or his Spirit were in Believers yet that would not make their Faith and Hope void Why Because they stand therein Contradiction VIII Is that Eternal Spirit in its Heavenly Vertues any thing else but Immortal Crowns of bright Burning Glories Though the Eternal Spirit be that Invisible God that by the Power of his Almighty Word hath created all things and though all Power Wisdom and Glory proceeds only from an Invisible Eternal Spirit D.L.G. p. 106. Can this Infinite Spiritual Glory be sensible of its Divine Excellency or be a perfect Blessedness except he hath a distinct Body suitable to