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spirit_n	death_n	life_n	power_n	7,316	5	4.8859	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62893	The Muggletonians principles prevailing being an answer in full to a scandalous and malicious pamphlet, intituled A true representation of the absurd and mischevious principles of the sect called Muggletonians : herein the aforesaid principles are vindicated, and proved to be infallibly true : and the author of that libel, his scandalous title and subject proved as false to truth, as light is to darkness, and that he knows no more what the true God is, nor what the right devil is, nor any true principle or foundation of faith, for all his great learning he so much bosts of, then those Jews that put the Lord of life to death, for learned and taught reason is but natural, and so falls short of the glory of God, as will appear in the following discourse / by T.T.	Tomkinson, Thomas, 1631-1710?	1695 (1695)	Wing T1840; ESTC R18719	47,859	79

many as believed in him shall Reign with him at that time And all faithful Men shall rise again and the Residue to Shame because they believed not in God that came in the Flesh to deliver Thus it is made Clear That God the Father became Flesh but one Evidence more from John befor I conclude this Point He in Admiration of his Lords Love cryed out saying 1 John 3.1 O What Love the Father hath bestowed upon us but the World knoweth him not but we know him Now who was this Father of Love was it any other but the Apostles Jesus his following Words doth shew it as clear as the Light saying thus We who are his Apostles do know him and we further know that when He doth appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is That is Psal 3.21 when he comes to change our vile Bodies and make them like his own glorious Body then shall we see him as he is in himself one personal God Cloathed with Flesh and Bone as a Garment of eternal Glory This is the Faith saith John That maketh Pure and he whose Faith abides in Jesus Christ that came by Water and Blood hath the everlasting Father and he that holdeth this Faith sineth not That is he sineth not to Act he may have the motion to Sin but it preserveth from the Act for that golden Grace of Faith crusheth that Cokatrice Egg of the Motion of Sin before it become a stinging Serpent and so Conquers and Overcomes This is the Doctrin of the Gospel and he that Imbraceth it hath the Father and the Son 2 John 10.9 where and to whom the Blessing and the Salvation of God-speed is given This is the true God and the Amen 1 John 5.20 Revel 3.14 and all other Gods are Idols This is the Muggletonian's Principle which the Ante-Scripturian calls a mischievious Principle Thus you curse the true God and defy the Holy one of Israel chusing to your self a God of your own lying Imagination In Page 19. you further Object against that Principle how that the God-head dyed This say you is quite contrary to Scripture which saith God is Immortal and that he hath Immortality 1. Tim. 1.17 6.16 Also you say That Muggleton teacheth That the Soul of Man is Mortal and turns to Dust To this say you the Scripture tells us That the Souls of Men are alive after their Death Matt. 22 32. And that God is said to be their God after they are Dead Matt. 10.28 And that we are not to fear them that can kill the Body and not the Soul And that Lazarus when he dyed went to Heaven and Dives to Hell Luke 16.22 CHAP. IX ANSWER The Scriptures Acts 20.28 say that God purchased the Church with his Blood Now the Blood of Christ was no other but the Blood of God and when he power'd forth that Blood then did he power forth his Life for Life lay in that Blood Therefore it is said That he powered forth his Soul unto Death Isaiah 53.12 Heb 9.14 and that he offered up himself through the eternal Spirit What is that but that the eternal Spirit entered into Death or passed through Death in a Moment into eternal Life Death being too weak to keep him under Coll 2.9 1 Cor. 15.54 so that whatever Life was in Jesus did enter into Death Therefore he that was the Alpha and Omega Revel 1.18 the First and the Last was Dead but is now Alive and behold he now lives for ever more and is that immortal only wise God blessed for ever So that we do affirm 1 Tim. 6.16 2 John 7. Revel 1.18 That God is immortal and we also know that Eternity did become Time for Flesh was in Time and Time did become Eternity again Now in that you Teach That God cannot dye it is evident that you do not belive that Christ was any God at all so that you Trenitarians Arians and Socinians you are all a like and that you are no more Christians then they For it will necessarily follow That if it were nothing but humane Nature or Life in Christ that died then the Death of any other Man had been equevolent to Christ's Sufferings and as Meritorious as his and so your Spirit God without a Body might have saved you by sheding of any other Man's Blood But the true Christian doth know that no Blood can make Attonement for Sin but the most precious and unvaluable Blood of a God to believe this John 6.54 is to drink his Blood And to believe that that blessed Body of his was no less then the very body of God this is to eate his flesh so that whosoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood so hath by so doing gained the full assurance of Eternal Life this is a standing Truth and shall prevail But how is it possible you should believe this when as you cannnot believe that any Life dies at all for say you The Soul of Man is alive after Death here your Ignorance appears very great for all your Learning Where did you ever find by Scripture That the Soul of any man was ever alive without its body The Scripture no where affirms it if rightly understood they are but old Wives Fables or Monks and Fryers Forgeries and heathenish Principles from their own blind Imaginations As for those Sayings concerning Dives and Lazarus 't is but a Parable Luke 16. and so must have a Spiritual meaning for Souls without Bodies have no Tongues nor Eyes nor Bosoms as that Parable speaks of but that Parable was only to set forth the two Seeds here in Mortality which is largely opened by this Commission of the Spirit And as to Christ speaking of God being the God of the living and not of the dead it was spoken to the Saduces who denyed the Resurrection therefore Christ shews that there was a necessity of a Resurrection Act 2.31 and 13.36 seeing that Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the Prophets were dead and their Sepulchres are with us at this day and if God do not raise them again to that Glory their Faith was pitch'd upon then was he the God of the dead and not of the living in that all dyed to him instead of living to him And as to that saying Fear not them which can kill the body c. That is fear not him that may kill both Soul and Body by a natural death but rather fear him that hath an absolute power in himself to slay both Soul and Body with an Eternal or second Death Moreover when the Scripture saith the body dies doth not that include the soul or natural Life What have you your natural Learning for but to understand the natural sence of words Do you not find that that which our Translation calls body the Greek calleth souls as Numb 6.6 there it is said That he shall come at no dead body in our

quite contrary and that they move in several Orbes and that each Orbe at so much distance from each other as the Astroligers affirm CHAP. XIV ANSWER 1. IS it not as good Sense and better to believe That the Sun Moon and Stars move all in one Firmament or Heaven as so many as Nine several Heavens as your blind Astrologers teach you And yet our fleshly Eyes can pierce through them all nevertheless every one of these must be so many Thousands of Miles beyond each other and this blind Opinion must be ratified forsooth because the Planets and fixed Stars have several Motions and therefore from hence you will have these several Heavens and these their differences in Motion must shew their difference in Hight and Substance 2. Because Saturn moves so sloly as to be near upon Thirty Years in finishing his Course through the Twelve Signs whereas the Sun finishes his in one Year Therefore from hence do you conclude that he must be of necessity Thirty times higher and Thirty times bigger than the Sun and Thirty times further to go nay and the next Orbe above Saturn to move so slow as to be Forty Thousand Years in finishing his Course Pray how many Millions of Miles is it to that Heaven or Primum Mobila One of your Mathematisians say it is One hundred and seventy Millions eight hundred and three Miles Is this your Wisdom in which you say we are not capable to answer you in I pray Is this good Pulpit Doctrin One of your Ministers that I did know whose Name was Mountney did mount so high as to affirm in the Pulpit to his Parishioners that it was so far to the Primum Mobila That if it were possible to fling a Millstone down from thence that it would be Seven Years before it would reach this Earth And yet in another Doctrin he taught That a departed Soul would be in Heaven in a Moment which is much higher than that primum Mobila And your reverend Doctor More before quoted must be remembred here for he Taught That a Star of the first Magnitude is Twenty thousand times higher than this Earth and Nine hundred thousand times biger than the Moon These are your rare learned Men I wonder how they could get a Line of that length to measure so far and yet to stand upon this Earth But let them go on for the time of their Sophestry is almost at an end But to conclude this Point as you upon our Principles of the Sun Moon and Stars aforesaid do call all Men to be Judges against us so we to retort your Language do call all sober Men to judge whether your Opinion of Sun Moon and Stars be not an Error of the greatest Magnitude and also whether you have done us Justice yea or nay And so much in answer to your first Query CHAP. XV. SIR your Second Query or latter part of your Pamphlet was to prove Lodowick Muggleton false from his Interpretation of the 11th Chapter of the Revelation of John But your Proof is but your Denyal for you do not so much as shew the meaning of one Word in all that Chapter If they could but assended up to Heaven in a Cloud as they had shewed how Moses and Jesus did all had been well enough even as the Jews if they could but have seen Elias to have come in Person as John Baptist did then they would have believed as they said So if you could but have seen these Prophets to assend up in a Cloud then perhaps you would have said you would have believed them But soft say you they are not the Two Witnesses for they cannot assend to Heaven for John Reeve is dead Besides say you they must have been put to Death by the Hands of Violence and then to have risen again and ascended to Heaven in the sight of all Men. This is all the Interpretation you can give of them which is none at all and all the Proof you have against them And as to Lodowick Muggleton's Interpretation of that Chapter you seem to be at a great Loss about it being astonished at his Words For say you I cannot tell how to reconcile his Words and from hence you fling all off to others saying Reconcile them as can for I cannot And what is the Difference and Matter that cannot be Reconciled Why say you he saith That they Two are the Two Witnesses and yet they say That the Body of those Two Witnesses are the Letter of the Scriptures and that the Witnesses or Letter was slain 1350 Years before and yet was slain in them again by the Beast out of the bottomless Pit To this I answer 1st Here you would have the Letter to be slain whenas it was the Spirit and Life of that Letter that was slain for the Life being gone therefore the Letter of the Scripture remained as a dead Body in regard there was none living that could give a true Interpretation of it Now this Spirit and Life was killed 1350 Years ago for the last of the Ten Persecutions did kill and root out all the true ordained Bishops or Ministers of the Gospel so that there was none left to give the Holyghost to others by laying on of Hands so then there was no quickening Power remaining until a new Commission was given which now is fulfilled at this Day for the same Spirit that gave the other Witnesses their Commission hath chose these to be Witnesses 3dly So that they having received that same Spirit of Life from God as the others had therefore it is they only that can and do Interpret the Letter of the Scripture for the Scripture is put into their Hands as the Priesthood was into the Hands of Aaron and they by their Interpretation do put Life into the Scriptures making it to stand upon its Feet in the Consciences of Men and Women with great Power both to the Seed of Faith and to the Seed of Reason John 6.63 15.36 to save and destroy for Words of Truth have Spirit and Life 4thly And as that Spirit of Reason did kill that Spirit of Life that did speak that Letter so that now that Spirit and Life is come into them again they will stand upon their Feet and kill the Spirit of Reason with a Death Eternal for there is now both Body and Life in the Scriptures and it is the Body of the Witnesses of the Spirit which is not a dead Body but a living Body now and so will remain to the end of the World 5thly Again whereas you do affirm That these Witnesses do declare that the Spirit and Life was killed in them by the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit in their Persecutors That saying of yours is utterly false and you did it malitiously on purpose that his Words might not be reconciled for Lodowick Muggleton did say That the Beast out of the Bottomless Pit made War against them and would have killed them if their Law could

Voice be never so true if it be alone and without the visible Evidence of working Miracles it is of no value As also you say it must be proved by Scripture without which you make it of no value c. CHAP. III. ANSWER 1. THis your way is to overthrow all Prophesy Numb 11.29 2 Pet. 1.19 1 Thes 5.20 You will tie God to worke Miracles or you will not belive him Either God must do as you will have him or he must not be God It is no wonder that you cannot distinguish between a true Voice and a false because God never chose you by Voice nor never will But how should you believe a vocal Voice when as your God has never a Tongue You have made it here plainly appear that you are of the same Spirit of those murthering Jews who bid Christ come down from the Cross and they would belive in him Matt. 27.42 True Doctrin without Miracles is to you most detestable 2. Again Isa 6.8 52.1 was not all true Prophets chosen by voice of Words nevertheless the Seed of the Serpent could never believe them Jer. 15.10 neither could the Priests or Rulers ever abide them and there was few of them but what was either Persecuted or put to Death 1 Kings 18.22 by the Magistrates and their National Priests There was 450. false Prophets mustred up against Too or Three true Prophets as Elijah and Micaiah and one of them must strike Micaiah one the Cheek as aforesaid and this Priest and Ahab's Son flung him down to bracke his Neck But Elijah the Representor of God's Person by Word of Power slew them all Z●ph 1.4 as a Tipe of the Destruction of all false Prophets and false Priests at the end of the World Such a Miracle you want When Isaiah Prophesied of his God's becoming Flesh Isaiah ●5 1 not one would believe him neither Priest nor People Therefore said he Lord who hath believed our Report 1 Kings 19. and Elijah said That all were gon after Baall Nor regarded Truth for that was ever hated I hate him said Ahab 1 King 22 8. for he never said Good of me but Evil It 's now as it was then unless we could bring Fire from Heaven as Elijah did there can be no Belief and it must be to destroy them it might Convince them but it would never Convert them Psal 78.32 If Miracles were wrought now what would it avail this bloody unbeliveing World they would but say as the Jews said of Christ Matt. 12 2● That they were don by the Devil But what said Paul Toungues and Miracles are but for a Signe not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 John 10 4● but Prophesy serveth for them that believe only John the Baptist a great Prophet and yet did no Miracle Thus you call in question the glorious Truths of God under pretence of John Reeves's Weakness as to outward Miracles that you might believe when as his Commission is all spiritual Now the Seed of Faith believes not because of the Miracles wrought by the Lord or his Prophets but in that they were of the Election and fore-ordain'd to believe for the saving of the Soul and as the Christian Dove waits for a Sign within him or from behind Reason 〈◊〉 30.21 for a Word saying This is the Way walk in it Even so on the contrary the carnal Serpent he requires a natural Sign before his Reason that may be seen with his outward Eye to make him believe spiritual Truths and therefore Reason Cries saying Where are you Miracles and where is your Scripture Evidence to prove it Prove by Scripture Now if this Witness should write nothing but what is exactly set down in Scripture then should they write nothing at all But always true Prophesy hath somthing new to deliver J●r 31.22 Again Did the Prophets and Apostles write Matt. 15.32 2 Pet. 1 21. by Imitation or Study or by Inspiration only they might allude somtimes to the Prophets Words for Convincing of Gainsayers Furthermore the Scriptures in themselves are Words of pure Truth to all that spiritually dissern them and that is such as have the Life and Power of them in their own Souls John 6.63 but they that have not the inner Life and Meaning thereof they study the outward Letter by their Reason to find the Life and Meaning thereof O●ed 6.8 John 7 52. and then this their Imagination the Child of study trumpits out it 's own Conceptions upon it This is the work and way of all the seven Anty Churches of Europe every one of them endeavouring to prove their Ministry by the Letter of the Scripture or by the Light within them but never a one from the glorious Voice of the everliving God without them And from hence though they Judg and Condemn each other for false whilst they are all false yet can they agree to Fight against God and his true Prophets by the Letter of the Scripture And you keep these Chests and Boxes of presions things but the Jewels and Treasure is quite gon and is a Stranger to you you know it not but do Despite unto it and put your own Imaginations into the Letter 2 Pet. ● 3 verse 3. 〈◊〉 ● 10 and so turn and wind it about like a Nose of Wax and make it speak for your Honour and Riches Oh! how profitable hath this Letter of the Scriptures been to Reprobate Preachers Wherefore then we who are called Muggletonians in scorn do boldly affirm That though you have got the Letter of the Scriptures and run away with it as a Dogg doth with a Bone yet none of its spiritual Declarations were ever written for your Instruction Rom. 15.4 Deut. 4.6 Jer. 9.23 but for the Instruction of the Seed of Faith For the Law only belongs to you and it may make you wise but not unto Salvation that 's the Property of the Gospel to the Seed of Faith the Seed of the Lord 's own Body for it is the Man of God that is made Wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 31.15 so that he must be a Man of God and have Faith in those Scriptures before he can be Wise unto Salvation because they are given by Inspiration of the holy Spirit and no Man can know them but by the same Spirit as those had that wrote them These things considered how then is it possible that you should apply Scripture to purpose when your Wisdom is not Inspiration 1 Cor. 4.20 but Education what will your Form do to you without the Power If you have the Words of God and not that Word which is God what good will your Word do you What Commission have you to preach to the People Christ tells you that you are but Thieves and Robbers climbing up to Heaven by Ordinances of your own and your own stollen Doctrine John 10.1 for you steal

2.14 then he speaks as in Referance to his God-head and when he saith That he can of himself do nothing and the like Isa 45.15 21 22 23. ●●●pared then he speaks as in relation to his Manhood God then hideing himself in that Manhood Again if it be granted That Christ is God and Man then it must be acknowledged That where Christ is there the Father is John 14. ● 9 Gal. 1.4 1 ●et 2.24 and Christ affirms it himself saying That he that had him had the Father and he that had seen him had seen the Father Now from all this doth it not plainly appear That he was the Father himself as well as the Son And John saith John 1.1 Verse 1● Mat● 1.20 That in the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God And this Word was God and that God or Word became Flesh Then surely that one God was Father as well as Son unless you can prove there were Two Gods or with the Arians That Christ was one with the Father in Union but not in Essence and if so then every Believer is as much God as Christ is But you have your Two Gods one of which you say took Flesh the other did not here you divide the Sub stance What a Monster do you here make of God for you had before Christs Incarnation those Two Gods in Heaven a Father God and a Son God and that Son you say The Father Begot before all Worlds and then was begot again in this World so your God the Son was Twice Begot or Twice Made Is this good Sence is this your Wisdom is this good Divinity nay without all Controversy this is quite contrary to Scripture and to sober Reason also Z●ch 1● 9 Deu● 6. ● Isaiah 42.8 48.11 Psal 103.20 Heb. 1.6 For was there ever any more than one God and did not the Prophet Isaiah say That God would not give his Glory to another and yet it is said That all the Angels of God should Worship Christ Isaiah 45.23 Phil. 2.10 and that to him every Knee should bow and that not only in Earth but in Heaven also Re●●l 22.6 Compar'd with Verse 14. Who then could share with him for he was the Lord God of all the Prophets testified by the Angel unto John which Angel bid John worship God even that God of the Prophets which was no other but Jesus Christ Therefore it is said I Jesus have sent my Angel and behold I come quickly c. There is no other God to come no other Father no other Resurrection and Life 1 John 2.23 5.7 2 John 9. Acts 4.12 no other Name or Power but Jesus Christ our Lord tho Men or Angels should gainsay it as I have abundantly shew'd in a Treatis intituled None but Christ Moreover John 17.3 to prosecute this Principle a little further here because it is our Life and Foundation Principle and it is impossible for any Man to be saved that shall presumptuously dispise this Doctrin of Jesus being the everlasting Father after so plain a Discovery I am now to inquire how you Trenitarians Sosinians and Arians bring Christ in for your Saviour You say That by the Fall of Adam all Men had incurred Damnation and so were become God the Father's Debtors and the Father standing upon Justice would not be Reconciled with them without the full payment of that Debt as Life for Life Now say you the Father was so far pleased as to send his Son to pay the full Debt And say you this Son came voluntarily and paid the Debt and by this means satisfied the Wrath of his Father and so purchased your Life by his Ransom Wherefore if it be so as you Teach That the Father is distinct from that Son then are you not beholding to the Father at all For take this Similitude for the Elustration thereof Suppose I owe a Man a 1000 Pounds or more and I have not wherewith to pay him and he will not forgive me any of the Debt or I must either pay it all or to Prison there to remain till I have paid the utmost Farthing The Son of this my Creditor sees the Strait I am in Commiserates my Case steps in voluntarily and pays the Father the full Debt and so sets me at Liberty Now in this Case who am I most beholding to the Father or the Son not to the Father at all for he was for Justice and I wanted Mercy The Son therefore was my Friend and to him only am I bound and him only am I to Love Serve and Obay This is the very plain Case Phil. 3.8 Ephe. 6.24 1 Cor. 16.22 1 Tim. 6.15 Revel 5.12 Jonn 17.5 2 Cor 5.19 2 John 9. John 8.36 1 Pet 1.19 2 Pet. 6. Heb. 2.14 it is the Son Christ Jesus that all the Elect Seed of Adam are beholding to and not to any Father that either is or ever was distinct from him But the Father of Christ was his own Godhead Spirit which through his eternal Love to the Seed of his own Body was moved to change his Spiritual Body which was his everlasting Son into Flesh to the end he might be capable to dye and shed his Blood for their Redemption as also that he might have Power to raise the Seed of the Serpent to a Second and eternal Death for their Cruelty acted against him and his Elect Seed Therefore his coming in Flesh was foretold by Isaiah and all the other Prophets Isaiah 9.6 and that the Son that was to be born of a Virgin should in time be called the mighty God and everlasting Father Now at this time this Prophesy is fulfilled and by this Commission of the Spirit he is both called and known to be the high and mighty God and everlasting Father This Scripture is possitive and shall command all primative Scriptures to bow down to it Thus the Scriptures are clear to all that are appinted to Salvation that Christ Jesus is that one only and alone true God and everlasting Father To this the Holy Patriacks agree observe their Testimony which is consonant to Scripture being grounded upon Enoch's Prophesy Sim shall be glorified when the great Lord God of Issrael appeareth on the Earth as a Man to save Adam for God taking a Body upon him namely of Flesh and Bone and eating with Men shall save Men. Ye shall see God in the shape of a Man said Zebulon he is the Saviour he is the Father of Nations he that Believeth in him shall certainly Reign in Heaven saith Levy and Judeth God shall appear and dwell amongst Men upon Earth to save Israel the Highest shall visit the Earth eating and drinking as Man with Man he shall save Israel That is God hiden in Man At the last Day we shall rise every one of us to his own Scepter saith Benjamin Worshiping the King of Heaven which appeared in the base Shape of a Man and as

in the Learned Scribes and Pharisees Mark 2.6 Luke 20.20 Matt. 26.3 Luke 20.5 Who held a Counsel and Reasoned in themselves how they might intrap Jesus in his Words And that Devil that tempted Christ he was one of them and no such bodilis Devil as your Reason hath created to it self that should carry Christ up to the Pinacle of that outward material Temple in Jerusalem no no But against all your Wisdom of Reason we affirm That he was a Man-Devil being a Learned Scribe well Read in Scripture and could argue the same from this Pinacle of his subtil Pate but Christ repulsed his Scripture Argument with Scripture again saying It is written thou shalt not temp the Lord thy God but him only thou shalt serve Now where was this Scripture written was it not in Deut. 6.13 16 And was it not writen to Men indued with the Wisdom of Reason It was not writen to a bodilis Devil for bodilis Devils do not commit Murder Adultery or tempt God it is Man that doth all this and it was to Man that the Law was given Exod. 20. Deut. 4.13.15 Psal 78.18 41.56 and so the Law saith Thou shalt not Tempt the Lord thy God as your Fathers tempted him And again You shall not corrupt yourselves Now from what is here said James 1.14 4.1.2.7 Compared it must needs follow that if Pride Envy Lust Covetuousness and Hipocrisy be the Divels in Men are not Men and Women those Devils that are brought under the Power of those Evils When the Apostle said That the Devil should cast some of them Saints into Prison Revel 2.10 the Saints were not cast into Prison by Devils that had no Bodies Therefore lay not your Brats at other Mens Dores John 6.70 8.44 Acts 1● 10 Isaiah 3.9 but charge your own Souls home with the Evil you do For as it is Man 's own Soul that Sins so it is his own Soul that must suffer This will prove true and so will that of Moses and Elias altho you call it all Fable For why will you ty God up to your Imagination of cursed Reason Is anything too hard for God to do Gen. 22.16 when his divine Wisdom moves him to it Did not he Swear by himself to himself what he proposed to do Psal 8.5 Phill. 2.7 8. And may he not by the same Rule change his own glorious Condition into Flesh and having humbled himself to himself John 17.5 19. Matt. 27.46 2● 2 Luke 24.4 Acts 1.10 Revel 22.9 may he not cause his Humanity to Pray and Cry unto his Divinity within him or to his spiritual Charge committed unto his Angels without him for a further Manifestation of his unserchable Power in Shame and Weakness as well as in Power and Glory Is it not writen How that his Angels had given them a Charge to watch over him And did not Moses and Elias do so from his Birth to his Assention Also is it not written Luke 1.17 Matt. 4.5 M●●● 4.5 Matt. ●7 12.3 That John the Baptist came in the Spirit and Power of Elias Which is plain that John the Baptist had his Commission from Elias for there was none greater in Heaven then Elias was at that time for God was then on Earth eating and drinking with Man as Man as was before said Thus much may serve to satisfy all sober Men who will not violently oppose plain Scripture Again you further object against that Saying of theirs where they affirm That no one ever did declare the Knowledge of the true God in his Form and Nature as they have done Now in Answer to this say you There was Sabulus and Noetus held but one Person in the Diety called by different Names These you Representor call Broachers of our Doctrin which you judg so mischevious CHAP. XII ANSWER IF these Bishops of Sabulus and Noetus taught so they were in the right of it and they might hint at Truth but they wanted a full Revelation for it was not Revealed to them as it is now and these Two Prophets never read any of their Writings neither do I think that there is any of them that are truly theirs in being We have the Prophets and Apostles Writings through Providence to shew that Christ was the only God altho they were very sparing in their Proof how God became Flesh to what this Commission doth and wherefore why because the Mistery of God was not to be finished according to John until the Days of the Voice of the Seventh Anty-Angel's sounding of his Trumpet or Ministry Revel 10.7 namely the Quakers And Sabalus and Noetus were before the sounding of the First Anty-Angel the Papist with Power Sabalus the Bishop being about Two hundred Years after Christ and Noetus was Contemporary with him so that this being in the time of the Ten Persecutions there was Truth then in the World and a Trinity of Persons in one Godhead had not got Footing at that time during the Ten Persecutions But after Religion was set up by Emperial Power then Bishops were chosen out of Learned and Philosophical Men and Churches as they called them builded and Riches given for their Support then were Sinods and Counsels called to establish Error and formal Worship and to suppress Truth That was ever without outward Pomp and Glory Thus was Noetus and Sabalus's Doctrin Judged Heresy both by Trenitarian and Arian and tho they Cursed Excommunicated and Condemned each other by several Counsels as if Hell was broke loose and so it was for the Thousand Years time after Satan's Binding was ended Revel 20. as soon as the Ten Persecutions were over for then the Devil went forth to deceive the World with false Worship as John declareth The Arian being but as a Branch sprouted out of the Roman Catholick altho in Constansius's Days and some time after a very great Branch insomuch that the Catholicks could not then bost of Number for in the Counsel of Ariminum and Selencia there was 560 Bishops the greatest Convention that ever was known and yet they Decreed the Arian Faith So that will you Catholicks say That Number is an Argument of Truth But whichsoever of them that got the Emperor of their side gained Power over the other so that both of them altho they persecuted each other with deadly Hatred as they got upermost in Power nevertheless they could agree together to kill Christ in his Members and to tread the Holy City under Foot of innocent minded Men and Women Revel 11.1 by their Penal Laws that could not bow down to their outward Formalities and Antichristian Principles These were as Two Thieves that Trtuth was Crusified between Matt. 27.38 Now these Catholicks prevailing and they having not only the Scriptures order'd by the Emperor Constantine to be Translated into their Tongue but likewise their learned Counsels collected and gathered into a Heap and all the other Writings of preceding

have done it And that roaring Lyon Jefferies did say afterwards That he was sorry that their Laws were so unprovided that they could not take away Muggleton 's Life So that it is apparent that the Spirit and Life of these Two Witnesses is not killed but after the Two Winnesses of the Spirit are dead the Spirit and Life will remain in vigour 6thly Wherefore as the other Two Witnesses of Water and Blood did last to the end of the appointed time of their Commissions even so likewise will the Revelation of this Commission last to the end of the World for tho the Doctrin is declared as to the Substance yet in that Doctrin will Revelation arise grow and increase in such as hear it and understand it to their eternal Happiness Joy and Glory and shall Prevail and Triumph over all Forms and Opinions in Religion that now totters more than ever through its own Instability And now Sir are you not either Blind or Malitious or both that would forge Contradictions where there is none yea and to make Lies on purpose to make Truth appear Infamous So that are not you a Shifter of all Shifters and know not where to six or what to say or how to disprove it either by Scripture or sober Reason It 's a poor Shift to falsfy the Words of your Oponant because you have not anything that seems plausible to Answer Sir is this your Learning Pray do you believe that Book of the Revelation by St. John to be true Revelation and a part of holy Writ If you say you do then why will you not give your own Centiments of so much as one Verse and tell the Meaning thereof And if this Interpretation of theirs be not good Sense why do you not Reprove them with better But finding your Ignorance to be such therefore it had been better for you to have let this Book alone and plainly to have said That it was Sealed and you could not read it in its own Sense And it had been better for you to have let these Two Witnesses alone and all the Believers of it alone but you were appointed to that end that your Lies and Slandees against it may bring you to a full Reward For this Book of the Revelation by John was not writen for your Edification but for the Instruction of this last Witness and Benifit of the Seed of Faith to the End of the World as a peculiar Blessing Seal'd to them from Heaven And therefore by this Blessing of Faith and Knowledge in the Scriptures of Truth which is now given unto us we do from hence find that you have no part of the Blessing of this Book of the Revelation of St. John as may appear by these Seven Particulars following As First This Commission of the Spirit hath seen into the Book of Life wherein they have found the Names of the Prophets Apostles Chap. 20.15 and the Witnesses of the Spirit Recorded there as true Commissionated Messengers of God but your Name was not found there as a Minister of God This is the first Evidence of your Exclusion Secondly These Witnesses and the Believers thereof Chap. 14.3 have looked and seen those Hundred forty and four thousand Virgins that were Redeemed from the Earth standing with the Lamb their only God on Mount Sion singing that new Song of all Praise to the Lamb But you not having learn'd that Song of all Praise to the Lamb were not found amongst them but we Chap. 17.5 22.18 looking about have seen you in that great City Mistery Babilon the Mother of all Harloting and Blaspheming Priests who are said by the Spirit to have the Curse of this Book for ading and taking away from it For you add your own Imaginations to it and so from thence will make your own confounded Reason to be the Judg of it as I shew'd before in Chap. 2. Thirdly As we have seen you add your own vain Thoughts to it so likewise have we seen you taking away from the Words of this Prophesy Chap. 11.2 and the Two Witnesses thereof For you will not suffer those last true Prophets to have any Footing here but would thrust them out of the Book of Life Chap. 18.7 and thrust yourself into it But this Commission sheweth us That God will take away your part out of the Book of Life not that you had any there but that you thought you had and thought your Name was there but you are not in the Book of Life to be found neither as a Teacher nor as a true Believer as those Two Witnesses are and the true Believers thereof We have found our Names in this Book of Life of the Lamb Chap. 3.5 the only and alone wise God to our eternal Comfort and his everlasting Praise Forthly Again you have further taken away from this Book Chap. 22.4 2.18 19 12. 1.18 in that you denyed God to have any Body Face or Shape So that as the Blessing of this Book is That the Saints shall see his Face so the Curse of this Book is That such as have denyed him as aforesaid shall never see his Face to their Comfort Fifthly you have likewise taken away from this Book Chap. 1.8.18 2.8 in that you teach that the Alpha and Omega did not die But this Book doth declare that the Alpha and Omega the First and the last did die and shed his Blood by which he redeemed his Elect Seed so what part can you have in this Purchase seeing you deny that God had any Blood or offered up any Life by sheding of the same Sixthly 1 John 5.20 Revel 19.16 17. 15.13 1.8 22. ● 16 18.8 17.14 You also further add and take away from this Book of John in that you say That there is a God distinct from Christ And further say That Christ Jesus our Lord is not the sole God But this Book of John owns no other God at all but Jesus Christ giving him the Titles of First and Last the Alpha and Omega King of Kings God very God true God great and almighty God and the God of all Prophets Where then should there be any other God besides Jesus Christ our Lord for this divine Apostle who lived and leaned in the Bosom of this Lord knew not any other God as is abundantly proved Seventhly and lastly This God the Lord Jesus you have Renounced his Prophets you have Persecuted and Belied the true Faith you have despised for you have not only Contradicted and Dispised the Doctrin of the Second Commission which was the Commission of Blood but you have also to agrivate your Crime called the Doctrin of this Third and Last Commission which is the Commission of the Spirit and which is one of them three great Armies that in Heaven will follow the Lamb upon white Horses Chap. 19.14 which is the Righteousness of Faith in his blessed Person I say you have called this Commission Blasphemy Delusion Deceat And that it is say you made up of Impiety Nonsense and Alsurdities And in general calls them mischevious Principles Confusion and Contradiction and that we are a peraici ous and contemptable Sect c. So that from hence it doth plainly appear Chap. 19.15.20 21.27 That you have brought yourself under the Judgment and Sensure of that Book of John and of this Commission of the Spirit which doth so fully explain that Prophesy being sent to finish the Mistery of God Chap. 10.7 And now behold it is finished and you have beard and now you will find Psal 62.11 that Power belongeth unto this God and to this his Commission of the Spirit FINIS