Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A66428
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A true representation of the absurd and mischievous principles of the sect, commonly known by the name of Muggletonians
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Williams, John, 1636?-1709.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing W2735; ESTC R38943
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21,260
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36
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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
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