thee whether thou art indued with a Ministerial Power Doth Christ immediately pour forth the Gift of his Spirit or cure the Sick when thou prayest over them or doth he own thee in casting out Devils by thy Word or doth he own thee by raising the Dead curing the Lame c. Thus far we have considered the Evidences which are such as are no distinguishing Characters and what others may equal them in and so we have no more reason to accept them as Commissionated than they had to accept Impostors and have as much reason to reject them as they had to reject other Impostors For what is there they pretend to which Impostors have not or might not have pretended to Nay if either be accepted they are so to be that exceed these in their Evidence as did J. Robbins who shewed many Signs and presented his Person to some riding upon the Wings of the Wind like unto a Flame of Fire c. and did plague the Bodies and Spirits of others at his pleasure in a most dreadful manner as they report Here was a sensible Evidence it was conspicuous he plagued the Bodies and Spirits of Men But these Men pretend only to a Voice that one of them heard and to a Power of pronouncing Men damned to all Eternity irrevocably Sect. II. Q 2. I shall consider whether there be not as great Evidence against J. Reeve and L. Muggleton as they had against other Pretenders which if it be they are as much Deceivers as the others 1. They are Deceivers and have no Commission who contradict and make void a former Commission without sufficient Authority or Commission for it 2. They are Deceivers and have no Commission who pretend to Inspiration and Infallibility and yet have actually mistaken in what they pretend Infallibility and Inspiration for 1. They have no Commission who contradict and make void a former Commission without Authority or Commission so to do They say in the Title to the Looking-glass The Commission of the Spirit agreeing with and explaining of the two former Commissions of the Law and Gospel differing only in point of Worship 1. I shall consider how they differ in Worship from the former Commission as they call it 2. I shall shew That if they differ as they say only in point of Worship yet in so doing they do contradict and so far make void the former Commission 3. That they differ from the former Commission in many other things as well as Worship and which are of such consequence that did they agree in Worship with the former Commission as they grant they do not yet those alone would be sufficient to shew that they do thereby make void the former Commission Which if it be made good then what remains for them but to shew their Commission for so doing and if their Authority for it be not proved by as good clear and sufficient Evidence as the former Commission was confirmed and established we have good reason to think no better of them than they did of Robbins Tanee and other Impostors 1. I shall consider how they differ in Worship from the former Commissions of Moses and Christ Of this let us hear them This Commission of the Spirit doth hold forth no visible nor external outward Worship as the other two Commissions of Moses and the Apostles did so Muggleton 's Epistle to Looking-glass that is All visible Worship from Mens Tongues Eyes and Hands was to be done away and is now but as a Golden Calf of Mens own imaginations and no more accepted by Christ than the cutting off of a Dog's neck 'T is not outward Praying Preaching Fasting or Thanksgiving to be seen of Men but it is an inwâ—rd spiritual silent Praying and Praising c. And yet they grant this Visible Worship was the way of the Apostles which did last till the end of the ten Persecutions and which was then in great force so long as that Commission stood as Muggleton acknowledges in the foresaid Epistle So that in this point the Commission of the Apostles and theirs are inconsistent 2. I shall shew that supposing they thus differ from the second Commission that of Christ and his Apostles only in Worship yet in so doing they so far make void the former Commission This is granted for they say When God doth give a New Commission the Old is made void as with reference to the Visible Worship Therefore you know that the Apostles Commission did wholly thrust out the Visible Worship which was set up by Moses So likewise it is with this Commission of the Spirit because this Commission of the Spirit doth hold forth no visible outward Worship as the other two Commissions did They own Christ's Commission did appoint a Visible External Worship but this of the Spirit as they call it doth not but forbids it and so the latter doth make void the former Now then since their Commission doth as much make void the Commission of Christ as to External Worship as Christ's Commission did that of Moses we may enquire who gave them this Commission or how do they prove they received it from God For certainly they who will make void the Commission of Christ and the Apostles ought in Reason to give as good Evidence of a Divine Authority for so doing as our Saviour gave of his and so much the more as Christ is above Moses Our Saviour did not expect the Jews should give credit to him further than he gave them Evidence and 't is surely then unreasonable to give credit to these persons without it And our Saviour's Evidence would have been none had he only that to say for himself which these pretend to Would it have been enough for our Saviour when the Jews required a Sign to have said as these do This is the old Serpent that arraigns the glorious God at the Bar of thy Carnal Reason No Though our Saviour call'd the Jews an adulterous Generation because they continued incredulous after the Miracles wrought among them yet at the same time he tells them that there was one in reserve which would convince them or nothing would which was his own Resurrection Matth. 12. 39. It is not necessary every one sent from God should in every case have this Testimony of Miracles as it was with John Baptist John 10. 41. But had John come to make void the former Commission of Moses he must have produced the Evidence And this our Saviour did and so ought these to do or else must be reckoned among the false Christs and false Apostles 3. They differ from the former Commission in many other things as well as Worship and that of so great Consequence that these alone would be sufficient to shew that they thereby make void the former Commission and so must be Deceivers if the former Commission be in force and it is in force if they have no Authority to make it void and they have no Authority if
their Doctrine They answer by their Commission 3. The matter of Fact is not true for there have been others before them of the same Opinion so little reason have they to claim the first discovery to themselves as I shall presently shew 4. It 's an ill sign that this should be the first discovery and that for above 1600 years the whole Christian World should know nothing of it as they themselves acknowledge III. Character or Proof of their Commission is That throughout the Book call'd the Looking-glass there is no point contradicting it self nor one another which he calls an Infallible Proof of the Truth of this Writing If there was no other proof of a Point contradicting it self than what is here asserted that is sufficient For he saith That to have no point contradicting it self nor one another in a Book is an Infallible Proof of the Truth of that Writing By which Argument every Book consistent with it self would be necessarily true whereas nothing more evident than that a Book may be consistent with it self and yet be false As for instance They say that one Bull and Varnum and others long before them have pretended to be the two Witnesses in the 11th of the Revelation Suppose we now that those two had wrote a Book as L. Muggleton has done and call'd it a True Interpretation of the 11 th of the Revelation would that have been a sufficient proof of the Truth of that Writing that there was no point in it contradicting it self nor one another I trow not and yet no one can deny but such a Book might have been so contrived And I durst have put it to the venture whether if this be true it would not have been as much a proof of their being those Witnesses and they might have alike Subscribed their Book as he doth his viz. By Bull and Varnum the two last Commissionated Witnesses And as this is not an Infallible proof of the Truth of the Writing so much less of the Divine Inspiration of it and of their Commission For a Book may in all points agree with it self and contain nothing but Truth and yet be of Humane Invention If a Book be inconsistent with it self it 's to be sure not of Divine Inspiration but it may be consistent and yet be only of Man's Composition And yet they fail in this point for it will be a difficult matter to reconcile it to it self For they say they write from an Infallible Spirit which implies the highest certainty and yet say I am perswaded in my Spirit and I do rather believe that there was seven hundred thousand than seven thousand though the Revelation of John doth express it to be but seven thousand To be perswaded and to believe a thing to be so are inconsistent with Infallibility for that admits no less than I am sure of it So again Muggleton saith of the Angel St. Matthew speaks of that perhaps it was no more to his visible sight and speaking of St. John's Revelation he explains it so it may be said Now these words perhaps and it may be said are doubtful Expressions and not reconcileable to Infallibility IV. V. VI. Suppose these Characters to be true for the matter yet that follows not that they are of Divine Inspiration and Infallible 1. Because then it would follow that all good Books and true were infallible 2. The 5th is what others have held as well as they VII If the largeness of the Book and the not looking in any Writing were Signs of an unerring Spirit then the Writings of several Quakers as Burroughs and G. Fox c. might pretend to it if they may be believed who often begin their Books with The Word of God And so would those of Jacob Behem who saith he writ without Humane Assistance And if the Purity of the Language be a Sign of Truth and Infallibility then I am sure that the Writings of these two are far from being either true or infallible This it seems was notorious in the former Edition of the Looking-glass 1656. And therefore L. Muggleton doth wisely to lay it upon the Abuse it received in the Press But if L. Muggleton was the Corrector and was to rectifie those abuses by his own unerring Spirit it would have escaped no better than his True Interpretation of the 11 th of the Revelation which abounds with false English beyond number and of which I never read a Page that wanted it And even that very Book which this is immediately spoken of viz. The Looking-glass after his Correction of it fails in the propriety of the Words the Concord the Connexion In the Paragraph just before this bold Challenge and the Appeal he makes to the Purity of its Language n 45. we find the Word Tosticated a vulgar but a much mistaken word and is for Intoxicated Where is the Concord in the Phrase Things of such Concernment requires Epistle 1. prefixed by Reeve And Men takes upon them p. 165. n. 29. My Brethren that hath p. 207. n. 8 Secrets that hath not been reveal'd p. 208. n. 17. Where is the propriety in Neither did he know not what Power he was endued with p. 127. n. 21. and confounded of Conscience p. 96. n. 18. These are passages I casually met with but if any one will have a Specimen let him read L. Muggleton's Epistle annexed to that Book and try what Purity and Elegancy is in it It 's a sign these Persons did not understand true English nor often the Sence of what they wrote that would venture upon this and produce the Purity of the Language as a Note of an unerring Spirit in the compiling of it VIII Character or Evidence is That since the Apostles Worship ceased which continued about 300 years and which was in or at the end of the ten Persecutions not a Man hath been commissioned till they were How many things are here taken for granted which there is not a Syllable of Proof for As 1. That there was a time when the Apostles way of Worship was to cease and actually ceased 2. That this time was at the end of the ten Persecutions 3. That none was Commissioned from that time 4. That J. Reeve and L. Muggleton are now Commissioned After all that has been said where is the Evidence of these Mens Commission They did wisely to lay aside Scripture and Miracles as they do Of Scripture they say The Commission of the Spirit agreeing with and explaining of the former Commissions of the Law and the Gospel differing only in point of Worship And as for Signs they are for those that are Spiritual Invisible Fire and Burning within but as for Natural Visible Signs they leave them to the first and second Commission to Moses and Christ But yet after all we think we may as well say to them as they to others If thou shalt imagine thy self fit to Minister I would fain know of
Lord Mayor Aldermen and Jury Bottomless Pit that is the Pit of their Imagination Shall kill them that is would have killed us if their Law would have done it V. 8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified Dead Bodies that is the Letter of Scripture In the streets of the City that is the Hearts of Men. V. 9. And they of the People and Kindred and Tongues and Nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in Graves For the meaning of this he refers us to what was before and that I find in ch 51 52. The People that is the Jews who owned the Letter of the Law Gentiles that is those that owned the Letter of the Apostles that is the Roman Emperours which overcame the Nation of the Jews which was in the Destruction of Jerusalem which was in the ten Persecutions Three days and a half that is 1350 years for so long the Letter of Scripture lay dead Not suffer their bodies to be buried because the Jews and Gentiles knew better what to do with the Letter than the Spirit And so the Roman Catholicks and those that sprung from them have seen the dead bodies of the Scripture lie dead 1350 years V. 10. And they that dwell on the Earth shall rejoyce over them and make merry and shall send Gifts one to another because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the Earth They rejoyced over the Letter of the Scriptures the Spirit and Life of them being put to Death And now they looked upon themselves as very sure because there were none left upon Earth that had a Commission to torment them V. 11. And after three days and a half the Spirit of Life from God enter'd into them and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them which saw them The Spirit that is the Commission of the Spirit enter'd into the Letter of the Law and Gospel and by a true Interpretation they made the dead Letter stand upon its feet and that kills the Spirit of Reason with Death Eternal which it never did this 300 years till the year 1651. Great fear so as to convince some and make them silent Others were filled so with wrath as to be damn'd to Eternity others receiv'd it to Eternal Happiness V. 12. And they heard a great Voice from Heaven saying unto them Come up hither And they ascended up to Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them Of this Blank Here he seems to be at a loss I shall now draw all this together and the Sum of the whole is this That J. Reeve and L. Muggleton are the two Witnesses the Olive Trees and Candlesticks spoken of in this Chapter That these two were to prophesie 1260 days beginning in February 1651. And had power to save and damn irrevocably to all Eternity c. That upon declaring this Commission the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit that is the Ld. Mayor Fowk the Recorder and Jury out of the Pit of their Imagination made War against these two aforesaid Witnesses 1653. and killed them that is the Letter of the Scripture And their dead Bodies which is the Letter of the Scripture lay dead in the streets of the hearts of Men. And the People and Kindred saw the dead Letter of the Scripture lie dead three days and a half or 1350 years and rejoyced at it But at the end of the 1350 years in which the Bodies of the Witnesses or the Letter of the Scripture had lay dead the Spirit entered into them by the Commission given to J. Reeve and L. Muggleton 1651. And so the Bodies of the Witnesses or Letter of the Scripture stood up again And it should have been added That the Witnesses ascended up into Heaven in a Cloud and their Enemies beheld them But soft for J. Reeve has been long dead Now reconcile all this who can For 1. He saith that they two are the two Witnesses and yet the Bodies of those two Witnesses are the Letter of the Scripture 2. If the Letter of the Scripture is the Body of the Witnesses and that lay slain 1300 years before these two say they receiv'd their Commission then the Bodies of them were slain before and 1300 years before these two Witnesses were in being 3. He saith The body of the Witnesses or Letter was slain 1300 years before and yet makes it slain again by the Ld. Mayor And if it was slain in his time then the three days and a half was to begin after his time and a new 1350 years was to follow 4. Observe That in the Revelation the two Witnesses had their Commission before the Bodies were slain but if the Bodies of the Witnesses is the Letter of Scripture and was slain 1350 years ago then they were slain so long before these had their Commission which was not till 1651. It 's plain this Shifter knows not where to fix He would fain like Simon Magus be accounted some great One and he and his Partner would set up for Broachers of New Doctrines how sordid and contradictious soever but he wants the skill to patch things cleverly together they are at the best but tatters and can never be brought into one intire piece And this Exposition of his is so sorry and pitiful an attempt that he might as well have undertaken to have proved himself and Reeve to be the two great Lights in the Heavens and to as good purpose have in like manner wrote an Exposition on the first Chapter of Genesis To conclude If confusion and self-contradiction may pass for Exposition if confidence and self-assuming may pass for Inspiration if nonsence and obscurity may pass for Illumination if cursing and damning others may pass for Charity if Blasphemy may pass for Religion then these two may be allowed to be what they pretend But if these things will not pass among Mankind then they will no more be Prophets and Witnesses from God than they will ascend into Heaven in a Cloud in the sight of their Enemies FINIS See Letter to Ld. Mayor and the Remonstr Remonst p. 4. Transcend Spir. Treat p. 6 7. True Interpret of Revelat. ch 75. n. 3. 5. Look glass Ch. 22. n. 15. Ch. 27. n. 38. Look glass p. 60. n. 36. Look glass p. 60. n. 37. n. 38. n. 39. p. 112 n. 46. Joyful News p. 49. See Transcendent Spir. Treatise §. 1. p. 4. 5. Quakers neck p. 67. Look glass p. 111. n. 43. Revelat. p. 40. n. 21. Look glass 1 Epist and p. 112. 117. 168. n. 8. 169. n. 15. 195. n. 34. 197. n 34. 2 Peter 2. 17 18 19. Remonst p. 9 11 12. Transcend p. 3 6 8 9 41. Letter to Ld. Mayor p. 3. Look glass p. 42. n. 10. Transcendent p. 41. Revelat. p. 158. ch 77. n. 1. Muggleton's Epist to Look glass p. 3. Look glass p. 111. n. 43. 167. n. 1 2. Transc p. 7. Revel p. 156. n. 2 3. p. 157. n. 1 2 4. 158. n. 3 4 5. Look glass p. 168. n. 11 12. 171. n. 33. Transcend p. 7. Transcendent p. 41. Look glass p. 92. p. 93. n. 25. 99. n. 37. Transcend p. 7. Remonstr p. 4. Look glass p. 99. n. 37 38. Look glass p. 99. n. 6. Look glass p. 14. n. 29. Revelat. p. 143. n. 11. Revelat. chap. 60. n. 8. 15. 19. Epist prefixed to it See p. 76. n. 2 4. p 92. n. 21. p. 108. n. 3. Look glass p. 98. n. 31. Transc p. 6. p. 18. Title page to the Looking-glass Transc p. 4 5 6 41. Look glass p. 158. n. 24. 186. n. 33. Revelat. p. 162. n. 4. Joyful News p. 51. Transcend p. 9. Joyful News p. 40 43. Muggleton's Epist to Look Glass Look glass p 185. n. 26 c. Remonstr p. 7. Transc p. 14. Look glass c. 18. n. 9 10. Look glass p. 195. n. 34. Transcend ibid. Look glass p. 79. n. 25 31. p. 49. n. 13 14. Look glass p. 12. n. 11. 81. n. 14. Look glass p. 36. c. 9. Rev. p. 164. n 4. Look glass p. 2. n. 10. Transcend p. 2. 11 23 26 28 29. Letter to Ld. Mayor p. 23. Transc p. 41. Gen. Epist p. 5. Look glass p. 64. n. 27. a Trans p. 31. b p. 35. c p. 36. d Revel ch 60. n. 10. e Trans p. 35. f p. 36. 31. g Revel ch 59 n. 3. 5. h Trans p. 31. Revel ch 60. n. 4. i Trans p. 37. k p. 38. l p. 35 c. Look glass p. 96. n. 18. Look glass p. 9. n. 3. Look glass p. 8. n. 8. p. 130. n. 4. Quakers neck n. 14. Transc p. 21. Look glass p. 130 n. 5. 134. n. 26. 153. n. 15. Transc p. 21. Look glass p. 154. n. 22 23 c. p. 156. n. 34 c. n. 44. Trans p. 25. Remonstr p. 8 Look glass p. 147. n. 21. 27 148 n. 31. Trans p. 50. 54. Look glass p. 100 101. Joyful News p. 10 12 13. Look glass ch 30. n. 25 p. 126. n. 15. 128. n. 30 31. Look glass p. 5 6 28 29. John 1. 14 18. John 5. 37. 14. 6. 1 John 2. 1. John 14. 28. John 5. 22. 1 Cor. 15. 24. John 5. 18. Look glass p. 158 n. 5◠Look glass p. 42. n. 11. Transcendent Spir. Treat Remonstr p. 5. Remonstr p. 6. Transcend p. 6. Look plass p. 194. 28. Ibid. p. 198. n. 15. Revelat. c. 59. Revelat. ch 9. n. 8. Revel ch 63. 5. See pag. 20. Revelat. ch 53. n. 4. Look glass p. 41. n. 2. Look glass p. 33. n. 50 58. Ibid. p. 34. n. 59. Ibid. p. 31. n. 34 35. Ibid. p. 31 32 33. Interpret of the Revelat. c. 79. n. 1. c. 82. n. 7.
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
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