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
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. â— 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
the Words from your Neighbour the Seed of Faith and then Cry Thus saith the Lord. What do you bring as an Offering but what you have stolen from others do you delver anything but Trascriptions and Historical Notions the Repetitions of the Letter of the Scriptures and the Sentences of the antient Fathers 2 Cor. 10.16 there is the Line you boast in so that you do no more in ephect but rob the Dead to cloath the Living For have you so muth as opened the Meaning of one Text of Scripture in all your blind Pamphlet you have named the Words and then left them to Answer for them selves as I shall shew hereafter Again you further Object against their Doctrin of Infalibility in that they say They write by an unerring Spirit Now say you an Infalible Spirit implys the highest Certainty But say you his Book is Inconsistant with it self for Muggleton saith I am perswaded in my spirit and I do rather belive that there were Seven Hundred Thousands than Seven Thousands Revel 11.13 though the Revelation of John doth but express it but Seven Thousands Now say you to be perswaded and to belive a Thing to be so are Inconsistant to Infalibility for that admits no less than I am sure of it say you CHAP. IV. ANSWER THE Prophets did both of them write by an infallible and un-erring Spirit the Doctrine of them Six Principles the Knowledg of which John 17.3 Salvation doth depend upon but as to some perticular Points that are besides the Foundation there is not that Nessessity to be so positive But as to the Essential Points of Faith they were written by an un-erring Spirit and are infallibly True and against Men and Angels they affirm it and we as truly believe it to the great Peace and Satisfaction of our Minds For what is it that can satisfy the Mind of Man but Truth having the Seal of Life in it as every true Minister of God hath For every true Minister of God hath Power to set Life and Death before Men and can say Matt. 18.18 Now is fulfilled such and such Things Also he that is sent of God 1 Cor. 2.15 knoweth the Things of God and he that believeth in such a One knoweth the Things of God likewise But how can you judg of Infalibility that do not own your self Infalible but Falible What is Falible but a Lye and must a Lye be the Judg of Truth He that knoweth the Mind of the Lord he may Instruct from the Lord 1 Cor. 2.15 Vers 16. but he that hath not the Infalible Spirit doth from his lying Spirit prescribe Rules to God and would be God's Counsellor Now must such ignorant carnal sleshly Men as these Judg Infalibility that have nor own no other Spirit but what is Falible But to come to the Point and Charge against Lodowick Muggleton For although the Prophets and Apostles were Infalible as to all essential points of Faith yet as to other things that were circumstantial and not so essential in such things Prophets and Apostles may differ about them in their Experience and Judgment Thus Paul withstood Peter Gal. 2.11 and Reproved him and though Paul there gainsaid Peter yet in som other things Paul himself was not positive As for Instance Paul treating on Marriage 1 Cor. 7.6 he speaks as the Prophet Muggleton doth here and tells the Believers That it was his Judment That it were better for them not to Marry And further adds That he thinks â— Vâ—se 39.10 That this his Judment is right and that it was from the Spirit of God Now I presume by what you have said of these that had you been living then and had heard of Paul's talking of having the Infalible Spirit of God you would presently have judged him a false Apostle notwithstanding the Miracles he had done and that he had contradicted himself and that his thinking was inconsistant to his Infalibility and so was not to be Believed Again if you had heard that Paul Circumcised Timothy Asts 16.3.2 Gal. 5.2 and yet nevertheless told the Galatians That if they were Circumcised they could not be Saved I say had you been in those Days Would not you have said That Paul had Contradicted himself and the Scriptures both Matt. 28.2 Luke 24.2 and would not you also have judged the Four Evangelists to have Contradicted one another in several places for as you Judg and Condemn these so you would have Judged them for these were sent by Jesus Christ and Paul was sent by no other God Again in Page 9. you quote John Reeve saying that he saith That he is Indued with a divine Gift to write a Volom as large as the Bible and as pure a Language as that is without looking into any Book or having any real Contradiction in it Upon these Words you make the Reflection fallowing Your Accusation runs thus saying That if the purity of the Language be a Sign of Truth Then say you I am sure it is far from being either True or Infallible For said you they do not write true English nor good Sence as likewise it often fails in the propriety of Words in Concord and Connexion being without Method Purity or Elogancy c. CHAP. V. ANSWER SIR in Answer to this The truly Wise do know that God's Messengers never regard fineness of Speech but soundness of Matter Not so much the Original of Words as the Original of Things even such as they are moved too by the Holy Ghost and not such Language as you are moved too by your Educated Spirit of Reason which is the Angels nature Fallen But in that you have no where contradicted our Principle which shews what the Person and Nature of Angels are therefore there is no Occasion given here to Dispute it but to Return to the matter aforesaid Spiritual Truth or Gospel Life was ever plain and was never delivered with new quined or high-flown Words of Man's Wisdom 1 Cor. 2.1 This made an old learned Philosophical Bishop Judg so hard by the Revelation by John not thinking it John's because of the Rudeness of the stile Dionisius For said he I see his Greek not exactly uttered the Dialect and Phrase not observed I find him said this Bishop using barbarous Phrases And Paul was called a clouter of Skins a Cobler by the Philosophers and a Man of no Breeding And he acknowledged himself but rude in Speech though not in true Wisdom but he had taken some Learning up at the Foot of Gamalial but he laid it down there again as soon as the Spirit of Faith became his Teacher All his Wisdom that he now valued was the Knowledg of Christ Crucified and Risen again which his former Wisdom could not know Acts 22.3 but on the contrary was the Persecutor of him Again Spiritual Truth or Faith was ever brought in Naked and Simple and in poor Array But Falshood doth ever indeavor to
we are Obedient unto all the Civil Laws of the Land and give to every Man the Respect due unto him All therefore that we desire of you is That we may pass peacibly through your Country towards our Inheritance but you are not willing that we should no more than Edom was with Issrael Numb 20. but have presumed to stop our Course by judging and condeming our Faith Now if our Faith be true as we know it is then you have given Judgment against your self you were not aware of that Caution of our Saviours Saying Judg not and thou shalt not be Judged Matt. 7.1 Now in that we know that our Faith is of God and is Truth therefore is it of Power to reign over that which judgeth it But if we might come to Reason together then I would demand of you wherefore you did send out your judging Pamphlet against us and would not subscribe your Name to it Were you afraid of holding Tryal with us for fear you should be worsted by us as others have been heretofore and so were for working Mischief privately and yet ly in Cognito thinking belike that Faiths Power could not find you out to give you an Answer otherwise how could you find a Name to your Book and a Name to the People you wrote against but have found never a Name for your self but have left it to us to find a Name for you which according to holy Writ is Elimas a Corrupter Acts 13.10 a sworn Enemy to Truth and the Accuser of the Brethren being of a worthy Descent Successor to Simon Magus being newly crept out of the Colledg of Priests which came out of the Mouth of the False Prophet such a one as Amaziah the Priest of Beth-el Rev. 16.13 Amos 7.12 who could not abide a poor Prophet a Herds-Man that he should once speak near the King's Chappel because it was the King's Court in which Learned Amaziah was the Doctor and Chaplain Thus have you delt with these Prophets of the Lord and for fear that this poor Prophets Doctrin which you like Amaziah call Mischevious should take any Ephect amongst the People From hence you have secretly spred this your Pamphlet into your Brethren the Priests Hands all the Nation over and have endeavoured to make our Principles as Contemptable and Odious as possibly you could in order to make them seem the more Rediculous and this your Book must be as a Pattern for them to frame their Arguments by and those their Arguments must be as Bulworks of Defence to them and as Bullets shot against us Sir Esther 3.8 You have acted in the very same way as Haman did against Israel saying in this manner to the King There is a certain malitious and mischevious People scattered abroad amongst the People in all places and their Laws are differing from all People neither keep they the King 's Church-Laws therefore it is not for the King's profit to suffer them let them be destroyed for their Principles are mischevious Now I being a Member of this dispised People seeing your Spite and Malice against us who have broke no Law am from hence moved to return an Answer and this my Reply shall not spare you altho I am given to understand That you are a Doctor of the National Church for God and Faith is no respecter of Persons in such a Case Therefore this my Reply shall persue you until it overtake you and when it hath overtaken you it shall fasten a Witness in your Conscience that you have been a Fighter against God his Prophets and People and against the Sacred Scriptures and a false Representer of the Muggletonian's Principles and I shall not be long in proving the same For In the Preface of your Book you say That John Reeve was by Profession a Baker which Saying of yours is utterly False So here you haue forfited your Title-Page which instead of a true Representation is a false one But you bring him in as a Baker to make him the more Contemptible with the Learned but if he had would that have made him more uncapable of being God's last Messenger I tro not no more than it did Amos who was but a Herds-Man as aforesaid For this is evident that the Saints have found in all Ages that the Learned have ever stood up as an Enemy and Judg of spiritual Truth as will more appear in the sequel of my Discourse But to proceed to The Accusation against us In your Presace you call us poor deluded Souls and by the Name of a contemptible and pernicious Sect and blasphemiously affirm that it is made up of Impiety Nonsence and Absurdities and that we have not so much as the Shadow of Reason to support us From hence say you we will not submit to the Tryal of it being uncapable of Argument and that you wrote not that your Trealise for our Sakes that have not Reason and Argument as you say to answer you but for the Sakes and Satisfaction of the World and of the Learned who are capable say you to hear Reason and Argument CHAP. II. ANSWER AS to them Judging and Condemning Censures against us shall be answered Chap. 15. And as to your Reason and Argument you so much bost of I am willing to allow it its Prerogative and give it its due of having Government as to all Terrestial Affairs Deut. 1.13 Acts 26.3 18.14 15. But wherefore should it enter upon God's Prerogative so as to take upon it to judg divine Things that are Eternal Luke 20.14 by its unclean serpentine Reason But to such as are learned in Faith's School doth know Matt. 11.25 that he that doth Minister spiritual Things is to lay Reason and Argument by as to the sinding out of any heavenly Secrets by the most persingst Reason that is For Reason is not Heaven-born James 3.15 and so is but Natural and it is the natural or moral Law that enlightens it but Faith being of another Nature which is Spiritual Psal 19.7 John 1.4 and so the Law of Faith serves to quicken and enlighten Faith and when it is enlightened then she Rules as Mistress over Reason Therefore though the Kingdoms of this World lys in Reason yet the Kingdom of Christ lys in Faith which ever appears simple John 18.36 Luke 17.21 2 Cor. 1.12 Luke 1.53 6.25 and yet it is this poor despised Seed that receives the Gospel it s the Simple and the Foolish that catch Heaven The Poor are filled with the Substance of spiritual Truth when as the Rich in Reason Notion and Argument are sent empty away Therefore away with your Arguments where Faith is sought Matt. 4.18 Amos 1.1 Acts 18.3 Coll. 2.8 there the Fisher the Herds-man the Tent-maker Ai and he that you call the Baker rather than the Philosopher are to be trusted Do you teach the World by your Reason and Argument as you say this manifests that you and
your Brethren are the Worlds Ministers and the World hears you and hence it is that you appeal to the World 1 John 4.5 John 7.7 for the World will Love its own Here now you appear to be a right Legolist Deut. 27. Judg 17.10 11 12 13. in imitation of the Levits of old for that Priesthood was to teach Reason the Moral Law for its reasonable Service that it should not Murder Commit Adultery Steal or bare false Witness which Reason is subject to do But all the Prophets spiritual Declarations belonged to the Elect Seed of Faith Psal 119.100 and was spoken into that innocent Nature that cannot do Evil and that in order to a further degree of Knowledg Love and Obedience Wherefore then if by your Teaching you can keep your Disciples in Sobriety and the Bounds of Reason this is a Virtue and brings with it the Temporal Blessing promised that Seed but if so it be Deur 28.2 3 4 5 6. that your Reason will seek Lordship John 19.7 Mat. 18.6 and would be a Judg and Controwler of Faith it is nothing less than a Devil and will be damn'd to Eternity And herein appears your Blindness notwithstanding your earthly Wisdom Ezek. 34.17 Matt. 25.33 1 John 1.17 because by it you cannot distinguish betwixt the Two Seeds of Faith and Reason or the Law and the Gospel But to proceed and come to the Matter in Question Would you Priests have us be tryed by your Arguments Then you are like to have the Cause if you must be your own Judges like the Jews by our Saviour his Prophets and Apostles But this we presume to tell you that your Reason being but Natural 1 Cor. 2.13 1 John 4.1 Rom. 2.2 Acts 17.2 24 25. therefore it cannot try spiritual Truth but our Faith can try your Arguments and it can take up Reason as a Servant to argue with you in the Balance of your own Reason the Angels Nature fallen nevertheless we can no more agree than the Prophet Jeremiah and those National false Priests did in the like Dispute Because Faith when it takes up Reason it takes it up not to expound and open the Sence of Scripture Sayings but as a Servant to Illustrate that Revealed Word by Argument for the further Confounding of that unclean domineering Reason that doth oppose its spiritual Sence But on the contrary when learned Reason takes up Words of Faith it expounds it by the Imagination of Reason Rom. 1.25 Revel 3.9 in respect its Reason is Lord in its Soul and so turns Truth into a Ly and the Elogancy of its Speech must form the Substance of the Matter 1 Cor. 1.20 Revel 11.2 and then War is proclaimed against the Truth and so Truth must be trod under Foot Thus did the false Priests deal by Jeremiah Come say they Jer. 11.19 let us devise Devises against him and let us destroy the Tree with its Fruit and let us out him off that his Name may be no more Remembred That is let us destroy his Person which is the Tree and let us destroy its Fruit that is his Doctrin or Declarations for he is in bringing in another Priesthood therefore Report and we will Report Jer. 18.18 20.10 2.8 Mal. 2.7 let us frame our Arguments against him for he saith That they that handle the Law know not God when as it is written That the Law shall not perish from the Priests nor Counsel from the Wise Misrepresenting Doctor are not your Arguments answerable to theirs even to a Hair Therefore as true Wisdom was departed from them so it is now from you and from all those National pretended Gospel-Ministers tho you bost as they did yet have you nothing but an empty Title not so much as a grain of spiritual Sense appeareth but as it was their Blindness so it is yours who understand not that the spiritual Law of Faith will never depart from that Spiritual Priest the true Christrian Ezek. 7.26 1 Pet. but his Lips shall ever preserve true Knowledg And this Priesthood will never terminate but will be with them to the end of the World For after Faith is enlightened by a Commission from Heaven then it needs no other Teacher 1 John 2. â—â— but that Unction which it hath received for the Spritit of Faith is Christ's Vicar But your outward visible Worships that are taken up from former Commissions they are ended and the spirit of God is gone out of them but this will bring a Box upon my Cheeks by you Non-Commissionated Minister as your Predecessor did to Micaiah the Prophet with a 1 Kings 22 2â— Which way went the spirit of God from me to thee But as the Law of Faith Isa 59 21 Heb. 10.58 which we have known and received will never depart from us so we need not to your assumed counterfit Priesthood but live by our own generated Faith now awakened or eluminated Ephes 5.14 by the Doctrin of this Commission of the spirit for we have no new Faith given but the old awakened as aforesaid for Faith was but once given 2 Pet. â— 18 and every Commissionated Prophet Messenger or Minister of God Ads a further Light and Knowledg to it So that now through Grace we have attained to a more principal Degree of Knowledg of the true God and the right Devil than others had before us so that from hence we are not wanting in Wisdom to answer your strongest Arguments your Reason can devise 〈◊〉 â—1 â—1 Therefore muster up your Army raise all your Forses from all parts and from all your Priests that you have distributed your Books to yet shall you never be able to disprove by your Subtilty quell by your Power 〈…〉 or subdue by your Force the Muggletonian's Principles because Salvation and nothing less is their assured Walls and Bulworks But to your following Arguments I apply myself to Answer by truth of Scripture The Accusation against us In Page the First you make your Book to consist of Two Queries First Whether John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton are sent of God Secondly Whether they are the Witnesses spoken of in the 11th of the Revelations To your First Querie you have largely repeated several of their Saings which you say they pretend to be true Characters and Evidences of their Commission Now after your Ramble in Page the 4th your First Evidence is That John Reeve saith That God spake to him Three Mornings together And say you Muggleton saith That it is God's speaking plain Words to the hearing of the outward Ear as well as the inward Soul that doth make a Man a Commissioner This Evidence say you is of no value because say you I cannot tell whether it be a true Voice or an imaginary lying Voice such a one as John Reeve said was in John Robins It is say you but their say so And then you conclude saing For let their
Attire herself in all her Bravery These Rascals said the Pharises are Accursed they know not the Law But said Paul 1 Cor. 12.8 That Learning of theirs will com to nought But as for Truth That guides to Heaven John 1.4 it needs no Gloss to make it seem better then it is for it hath Light enough in it self to shew it the way to Heaven The Scriptures were written in as homely a stile as Reeve's and Muggleton's were only wise Men in Reason have put them into a better Form and now boast of their litteral Accuteness whilst they are out of all spiritual Power and it must be so 1 Cor. 13.1 for he that hath learned nothing of Truth must Teach by an Eloquent Tongue of empty Words only For Sophisters who want substance of Truth must use-their Sophistry to corrupt Truth and adulterate the true Sence and then cover their own Errors with Paint And thus have you done in this Libel of yours for in Page 18. you affirm That John Reeve doth say pretending to quote his Words That the Substances of Earth and Water were from all Elements When as John Reeve's Woords were in that place That the Substance of Earth and Water was from all Eternity Thus you turn their good Sence into Nonsence and so bely them for by this your way of clowding their Words you would darken the Sence and make them appear the more Rediculous and to prevent a further Dispute in that Subject of the Substance of Earth and Water being made of nothing which you were not able to maintain and though you say you would confute that Principle yet passed it by and would say no more of it And so you let it drop Now as to your Elogancy of Speech your Tongues and Languages you bost so much of and you have need of it to paint your Errors as aforesaid we will leave this all to you Babal Builders Revel 18.31 as acquired by your Study and Learning it being your Trade which teacheth your Reason to play upon the Letter of the Scripture as upon a Harp being very mellodious to the outward Ear And by these means you Arts-Masters grow Rich and Honourable according to your skilful Merchandising of the Letter of the Scripture Revel 18.7 and Antient Fathers and Philosophers These must all be made to agree together for the Scripture must either make good Philosophy or else Philosophy must be brought to make good the Scripture and in your wise handling of this you grow Rich some Hundreds some Thonsands a Year equalling the great Men of the Earth and as to others of your Brethren though they be more inferior yet must they be called Masters although they be but Servants yet will they be well paid for no Penny no Paternoster So having found you all in the way of Balam to Bless and Curse for Mony which is your Souls chief Delight there I leave you to go on in your Trade and receive your Wages of Men here and of God hereafter Mâ—â—â— 3.7 Mâ—â—â— 3.11 John â—â—13 Jude 11. Pâ—â—l 3.19 Matt. 1.5 7.23 whom you pretend to serve then will you have a fall Reward A further Accusation against this Witness you have for affirming the Power of Sealing Men up unto Eternal Life and Death as they Receive or Dispise their Doctrin This you deny that any Man ever had this Power Saying That it is quite contrary to the Scripture and the Temper of the Gospel which is Love and then bid us prove it by Scripture CHAP. VI. ANSWER IT is confessed by us Titus 2.11 Ephes 1.5 that the Tmper of the Gospel is Love but then that Gospel and Eternal Love is but to the Seed of the Lords own Body and it must needs be so because that Grace is written in Faiths Nature and though that Seed did fall in Adam John 10.27 yet the Gospeâ— came to seek and to save that which was lost and fell in Adam for the Serpent's Seed never fell in Adam Mâ—â—k 2.17 nor never knew themselves lost So the Gospel belongs not to them but according to their Obedience to their own Law so they have the Blessing of the Law That the Rain may Rain and the Sun may Shine Mart. 5.45 and the Earth bring forth her Increase with long Life and Health And thus Christ which is the Gospel shewed his Love to that Seed when he wept over Jerusalem Luke â— 6 14.14 Now as he was Man he wept to see what temporal Judgments they would bring upon themselves But then on the other hand as he was God Maâ—t 22 13. Jâ—â—â— 6.7 Maâ—t â— 13. 11. 11.34 he rejoiced at their eternal Destruction for upon their despising those Declarations of his he thereupon pronounces upon them eternal Wrath calling such Divels Scrpents and a Generation of Vipers John 12.10 and that they should not escape the Damnation of Hell And John the Baptist pronounced the like Sentence and all the Apostles had the like Power after they had received their Commission As for that Saying of Christ's to them matt 5.44 To Bless and Curs not that was but when they were but private Believers as also it taught that Clemency as not to resist temporal Iujuries matt 16.19 But when they had received the Holy Ghost then was the Keys of Heaven and Hell Committed to their Charge Luke 10.16 and they had Power by them to Bind and to Loose to Remit and to Retain Sin Luke 20.23 What was that but Blessing and Cursing For the Blessing of a Commissionated Prophet or Apostle Psal 24.7 it opens the Gate of Heaven that is it opens the Heart in Love to that God that sent such a Message of glad Tidings of Salvation So on the Contrary the Curse of a Prophet it opens the Gate of Hell That is Acts 7.54 it opens the Heart in Envy Malice and Revenge and whose Heart that spiritual Key doth open no Man can shut and whose Heart they shut no Man can open Therefore it was that Paul said That they were the Saver of Life unto Life 1 Cor. 6.2 Heb. 10.29 Thess 5.20 unto those that believed them and the Saver of Death unto Death unto those that despised them Again Paul and the rest of the Apostles did declare That whoever denyed the Faith of Jesus or despised Prophesie or turned Apostate that there could be no Sacrifise for such Sins 1 John 3.8 5.16 2 Cor. 2.16 neither were such to be Prayed for but upon the contrary to be sealed up unto eternal Death All the Spiritual Declarations of the Prophets reach to the eternal State of Man for they pointing at their God's becoming Flesh and that upon his Death and Resurrection the eternal State of the Two Seeds of Faith and Reason takes being for the Resurrection of Christ gains Power to raise the Dead and give each Seed his Reward And therefore the Gospel
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 1â— 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 2â— 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 Mâ—â—â— 4.5 Matt. â—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