THE New Witnesses PROVED OLD HERETICS: OR Information to the Ignorant; in which the Doctrines of John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton, which they style, Mysteries never before known, revealed, or heard of from the Foundation of the World, are proved to be mostly ancient Whimsies, Blasphemies and Heresies, from the Evidence of Scripture, Reason, and several Historians.  
ALSO An Account of some discourse betwixt L.M. and myself, by which his Blasphemous, Ignorant and Unsavoury Spirit is clearly and truly manifested, in love to the immortal Souls of those Few, who are concerned in the belief of his Impostures.  
By a Living true Witness to that one Eternal Way of God, revealed in the Light of Righteousness. W.P.  
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these (Reeve and Muggleton) also resist the Truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the Faith. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was,  2 Tim. 3 8, 9 
Printed in the Year, 1672.   

TO THE READER.  
READER,  
Amongst the many strange Pretensions, that have been made to Religion, and the Authors and Abettors of variety of Sects, through every Generation, from the most primitive Christian Times, there has not appeared (though not a less formidable yet) a more complete Monster on the Stage of Controversy and Opinion than John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton, Brethren and Associates in the Blackest Work that ever fallen Men or Angels could probably have set themselves upon. What many Ages singly were infested by, we are assaulted with at once; and as if the scattered Limbs of Heresy had rallied and reinforced themselves for a new Combat; no sooner was the Glorious Truth appearing, than they were ready to make their utmost Opposition, either by their Enchantments, to delude the Souls of some; or through their unparalleled sottish Folly, to scandalise the World in general against all Religion, as ridiculous; and amongst others, the true as also Fabulous: Yet the Lord God of Eternal Power, whose Thoughts and Ways are not as Mortal Men's, but Infinite and Almighty, like himself; having decreed the Redemption of the fallen Souls of Men, by the Illumination of their Understandings, and Quickening of their Minds, dead in Trespasses and Sins, by the living powerful Operation of is own Eternal Spirit of Holiness, did appear in so great Glory and Majesty, that those Fogs and Mists, which began to overspread the Earth, were soon scattered, and the Everlasting Light rise, and hath effectually shined forth unto the Convincement and Conversion of Thousands from the Ungodliness of this present Evil World, and the Fruitless Religions that are professed therein, to live a Sober, Heavenly Righteous Life and Conversation.  
But Alas! Some few have strayed by the Way, One hither, and Another thither, for want of that Subjection and Holy Watch they ought to have lived in, unto the Blessed Living Truth of God: And as many Snares have been presented to Delude, so amongst others, their Sottish Imaginations have not been without the power of a Temptation, and too effectual upon some, the Lord knoweth, which though their Number be but very small, yet the Concernment of their Immortal Souls is great: For who living, that have tasted of the sure Mercies of God, and enjoyed of the Reward of Faithfulness to the Truth, but must needs Pity, Sorrow and Lament on their behalf; some that might have run well, and would not; others that began to do it, and Satan hindered?  
No sooner was Adam and Eve made sensible of the Blessedness of their Innocent State, than the Serpent endeavoured to beguile them; How? by Preaching Righteousness, Holiness, Watchfulness and Godly Fear, as without which none should ever see the Lord? No, nothing less, but by Idle Dreams, Lucifican Thoughts and Exalted Imaginations, above the lowly Awe and Fear, they ought to have lived in towards their Almighty Creator: And thus in some measure hath it faired with a few unhappy Souls, that have been beguiled by these Impostors.  
I shall not altogether make it my Business to confute his Tenants; but since they more than once, with an intolerable Pride, boast of these things, as New Revelations, and challenge the whole World to disprove them, and upon this single credit it is that their credulous Adherents are so mightily persuaded of their Patron's Sincerity and Infability (it being their first Lesson at entrance, To abandon all Scripture or inward Witness) And that Muggleton to my knowledge, in his Discourses, and otherwise, makes it his brag, That he not only knows more than all men ever did or shall know to Eternity; but that the Doctrines Reeves and he say they are deputed to declare (by virtue of an immediate oral Commission from God himself) are such divine Revelations, as were never known to Men or Angels before them.  
And consequently, since their Followers have nothing for a Proof, besides their bare Assertion (which is most arrogant and false (for they deny all inward Witness). It will appear both reasonable and necessary, that by an external Judge and Witness they should be tried; and if upon their Arraignment at the Bar, they be found only to have patched up old Phantisms together, and published them under the Name of Transcendent Spiritual Treatises, Divine Looking-Glasses, and the like; I hope they will be judged by every sober Person to be both horrible Impostors, and their Commission to be a mere Counterfeit.   

THE New Witnesses Proved OLD HERETICS, etc.  
I now proceed to perform what has been promised by most Undeniable Proof.  
First,  
REeves and Muggleton declare as a great Secret to the World, That God is not an Infinite Spirit in every Place at all Times (contrary to the Scriptures, which say, He measures out the Heavens with his Span, nor can the Heaven of Heavens contain him) but against men and Angels, and by Authority from the holy Spirit (to use their own words) God is but in the shape of a man; and that man, in respect of his Body, is the Image of God. Trans. Spirit. Treat. p. 15. Deu. Look. Glass p. 3, 4.  
That this is against Scripture we prove.  
First, There is none like to the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the Heaven in thy Help, and in his Excellency on the Sky: The Eternal God is thy Refuge, and underneath are the Everlasting Arms, Deut. 33.26, 27.  
If the God of Jeshurun be the true God, and none be like to him, then cannot man's bodily shape be the Likeness of the true God; consequently, if Muggleton's God● be in the likeness of man's bodily shape, he is not the True God, because he is not that God of Jeshurun, which none is like unto.  
Again, If the Almighty God were but of the dimention of a middle statured man, how could he be said to ride upon the Heavens and the Sky; and to have his Everlasting Arms under a People, many of whom being singly bigger than himself; for by Muggleton's Principles, We are still to keep to the Litteral sense.  
Secondly, But will God indeed dwell on the Earth? behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him, 1 Kings 8.27. 2 Chron. 2.6. chap. 6.18.  
If the Earth, on which dwells so many Millions of Men, be not able to receive God, as he is, and in comparison of limiting him to any place, (suitable to such a Body as Muggleton saith he hath) the very Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him; Certainly this immense and infinite Being must be of a larger extent, than the Proportion of a Mortal Man, his own Creature.  
Thirdly, Who hath measured the Waters in the hollow of his hand, and meeted out the Heaven with his Span, and comprehended the Dust of the Earth in a measure, and weighed the Mountains in scales, and the Hills in a Balance, Isa. 40.12.  
He that cannot measure the Waters in the hollow of his Hand? and meet out the Heaven with his Span, and comprehend the Dust of the Earth in a Measure, and weigh the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in a Balance, is not the true God; but a god of man's stature can never do that; therefore the true God is not such a one, neither can such a one be the true God.  
Fourthly, To whom then will ye liken God? What Likeness will ye compare unto him? the Workman melteth a Graven Image, and the Goldsmith spreadeth it over with Gold: Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the Beginning? have ye not understood from the Foundations of the Earth! It is he that sits upon the Circle of the Earth, and the Inhabitants thereof are as Grass-Hoppers, that stretches out the Heavens as a Curtain, and spreads them out as a Tent to dwell in, Isa. 40.18, 19, 21, 22.  
In this Passage is a most pregnant Overthrow of this vain Opinion.  
1. That God of whom man can make a Likeness; is not the true God; but such a one is Muggleton's, therefore not the true God.  
2. If God was of man's figure and stature, than Goldsmiths were able to make his Likeness; but this the Scriptures utterly deny, and ask, what likeness will ye compare unto him? therefore God is not in the bodily shape of a man.  
3. God by his Prophet disdaineth all such vain Conceits, and lest any should think so meanly of him, he gives his own Character, Have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the Beginning? it is he that sitteth on the Circle of the Earth, and to whom the Inhabitants thereof are as Grass-Hoppers; who stretches out the Heavens as a Curtain, and spreads them out as a Tent to dwell in.  
Fifthly, God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth, John 4.24.  
If God be a Spirit, he is either a finite or an infinite Spirit; a finite he cannot be, and be God; therefore an infinite one.  
If God be an infinite and immense Spirit (which are terms reciprocal) than not a Body of a little more than five Foot high, as blasphemous, ignorant and sottish Reeve and Muggleton darkly imagine; but the only wise and invisible God is that infinite Spirit, therefore not confined to any bodily shape.  
Sixthly, For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh, for sin condemned sin in the Flesh, Rom. 8.3. But made himself of no Reputation, and took upon him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of men, Phil. 2.7.  
By the likeness of sinful Flesh, and was made in the likeness of men, we understand and grant Christ's taking upon him not only a shape of a man, but the Flesh and Blood of a Virgin; the Question will then be this, Whether Christ had this shape before he took it? If he had, he took it after he had it, which is absurd; if not, he was before he had it; and if he was before he had it, either he was like his Father, or he was not; if not, than not his Son; if he was, then because the Scripture declares him to have taken upon him the likeness of a man, which supposeth him to have had a Being before he took it: God is not in the likeness of sinful Flesh▪ nor made in the likeness of men; but is the divine immortal Substance, of which Christ was the express Image before he took upon him the form of a Servant, or was made in the likeness of men▪ which take notice are both joined together, as Expressions of his Condiscension, as the following verse also shows; and in being found in the fashion of a man (as being a new and uncouth thing to him) he humbled himself, and became obedient unto Death, etc. This was in the day he took upon him the form of a Servant and likeness of Man, making himself of no Reputation; and not whilst he was in the form of God, when he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God.  
In short, If that only makes equal with God, which is found in the form of God; then that which is in the form of a Servant, and in the likeness of men, is not in that state equal to God; and if that be so, as it is, if Scripture be true, certainly there is ground to believe, that Reeve and Muggleton are not a little out of the Way, in asserting, That God's Form is the Pattern or Image man's Body was made by.  
But here I expect to meet with an Objection, that it may be fit to remove, as that only one which can carry any colour of an Answer with it.  
Object. Most of these Scriptures, especially out of the Prophets▪ only intent to show God's Sovereign Power, and not that he is not a Peson, as I assert him to be. Thus far Muggleton and his Company.  
I Reply, All Scriptures either import a literal or a mystical sense, and either would serve us against this false Witness; if he says they should be construed mystically, I will tell him, that he must give us the same liberty in that place to do the like, Let, us make man after our own Image; for they only collect from that Passage God's Image by man's likeness; but in many of the places urged by me, those Members, which in a literal sense denote a Body like to man's, are particularly mentioned: We will never allow him to allegorise the more literal, and litterize the more allegorical; if the one must be literal, let the other be so too, especially there being more ground for it.  
To Conclude, if he will interpret God's Hands, and Arms, and Span to signify his Power, as is most true; then will I also explain God's Image to be Holiness, which is also true. But if he will have it, that because God made man after his Image, and that man has an Head, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Ears, Hands, etc. therefore God has such too; I will infer, because the Scriptures say, He spanned the Heaven with his Right hand, and rid upon the Circle of the Earth, That he really and bodily did so span the Heavens with a great Hand, and rid with a mighty Body upon the Circle of the Earth; which how ridiculous and false soever it is, is as true as Reeve's or Muggleton's Conceit: Thus far indeed they would be in the right, by such a Consequence, That Almighty God would have a Body, but they would grossly lie in the dimensions of it, who say, 'Tis no bigger than a middle statured man. Thus much, If not too much upon this piece of old vain Anthropomorphitism.  
That this idle Opinion is against that Understanding which God has given Men to judge of the Difference of Things, we also prove.  
First, If God were a Person of man's stature; it would destroy his Ubiquity or Omnipresence, which is one of his most divine Properties, rightly attributed to him: For, how is it possible so inconsiderable a Body can be at all places at one and the same time, by which to see and understand all things, or to administer Strength and Comfort to his scattered Flock throughout the World?  
Secondly, If they would say, he is present by his Spirit (as read Reeve's Epistle to his Divine Looking-Glass) I affirm against all Muggletonians upon Earth, That then not that Body, but that Omnipresent Spirit is the truly in infinite God.  
Thirdly, But I would fain know how God and his Spirit can be divided or separated; Can any man be truly such, whose spirit is absent from him? What Body is a living Body without a spirit, any more than Faith can be living without Works? How then can God's Body, no bigger than a Mortal Man's, be contained in Reeve's and Muggleton's conceited Heaven, and his Spirit every where? Where God's Spirit is, God is; he can never be divided from his own Life and Spirit: for God is that Spirit, or that Spirit is God; they are synonimously or equivolently to be taken. This the Apostle believed, when he told the Athenians, That God was nigh to every one of them, and in him they lived, moved, and had their Being.  
Fourthly, How was it possible for Reeve to hear God speak with a Voice of words from beyond the Stars, as one Body speaks to another, and no Body hear besides himself, nor the visible Firmament or Air to receive any Alteration or Disposure, as ever was when Voices of Words have been uttered, whether to Moses, or of Christ, or otherwise?  
If any say, It was a spiritual Voice, such talk sottishly; no Carnal Ear can hear a Spiritual Voice, as Reeve himself teacheth, page 47. T.S.T. concerning which something may be fitly hinted elsewhere.  
Fifthly, But I would add from their wicked Principles, That if Man be God's Image, in reference to his Body, then, because Reeve and Muggleton declare that a select number of men's Bodies and Souls are preordained to be eternally damned, therefore God has decreed his own Image to everlasting Vengeance, and that to glorify himself too; which one Horrible Impiety I desire all to weigh, and then there needs no farther undertaking to his Confutation.  
That this OLD, and also Exploded HERESY I prove.  
This wonderful dark Secret is to be read in Theodorus of Heresies, the 4th Book, and 10th Chapter, where he speaks of one Audaeus, who lived in Coelosiria, in the time of Constantius the Emperor, and grounded his Conjecture upon these words, Let us make man after our Image. Also several Monks inhabiting Egypt conceited, the God that made Heaven and Earth to be no bigger than a Man. Of which Opinion, with Muggleton, was one Theaphilus of Alexandria, they were called Anthropomorphits, as may at large be seen in Eusebius Pamphilus his 6th Book and 36th Chapter; also in Socrates Scholasticus his six and seven Books: this was about the Year after Christ 403. and One thousand two hundred sixty nine years since.  
Secondly,  
THeir second Secret is That God did not create the Heavens and Earth out of Nothing, but the Substance was with God from Eternity, T.S.T. p. 12.  
That this also inconsistent with SCRIPTURE we prove.  
First, In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth, and the Earth was without form and void, Gen. 1.1, 2.  
If they were created before they were form, as saith the place, than Creation and Formation are not one and the same thing, as Reeve and Muggleton assert in their Transcendent Spiritual Treatise, p. 16. so that either the Authority of Scriptures must be denied, or else Creation is first a bringing forth of the Chaos or rude Substance, and Formation the Disposition of it into such Parts, and Designation unto such Ends or Services, as that all wise Creator might think most befitting his great Work. Enough might be said on this one particular to confute all with whom the Scriptures remain of any force.  
Secondly, Harken unto me O Jacob, and Israel my called; I am he, I am the first, I also am the last; my Hand also has laid the Foundation of the Earth, Isa. 48.12, 13.  
To be first, and to have laid the very Foundation of another's Being, supposeth that thing neither to be before it, nor so much as in time equal with it; and therefore denotes priority and superiority: Wherefore thus I argue, If God was before so much as the Foundation of the Earth was laid, then was neither the Earth, nor Foundation of it, from Eternity with God. But the Text affirms, That God was first, or before the very Foundation was ever laid, therefore neither the Earth, nor Superstructure, as to its Form, nor yet its Foundation or first material Principle was Coeternal.  
In short, Nothing can be said to create any thing that is equal in time with it, because such Creation supposeth the one to receive its being from the other: and since God gave its Foundation, or first bottom, the very material Principle, it follows, there could be no Co-eternity betwixt them.  
Thirdly,— And the Word was God: All things were made by him, John 1.1, 13.  
If all things were made by him, than both Heaven and Earth, because they are part of all things, were made by him; but the place says, all things (or whatever has being) were made by him; therefore a●● Co-eternity of Earth or Heaven with the Everlasting God is excluded and refuted.  
To this answers that Passage of the Apostle Paul in the Acts, God that made the World, and all things therein, etc.  
Fourthly▪ To conclude this Head, For by him were all things created, and 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 things; and by him all things c●n●●st, Collos▪ 1 16.17. And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth, and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands, Heb. 1.10.  
That which had a Beginning, which was made and which was and is upheld by another, neither can have been contemporary nor coeternal with that from which it received its Being; but that did the Heaven and the Earth, and from Almighty God, as the place proves: Therefore not Coeternal with him.  
Nor can their idle shift any ways secure them from the dint of these Scriptures, nor the Arguments built upon them, viz. making is fashioning, so God made the Heavens and the Earth, as a Carpenter makes a Door or a Chest, he fashions it of Wood▪ but he does not make the Wood: A Distinction fitted for Bodlam, then▪ men pretending to be in their Wits: Can any rationally think, that when God is said to lay the Foundation of the Earth, and to make the Heavens, and all that live therein, that he only fashioned them up? Who made the Trees, Plants, Beasts, Fowls, Fishes, and rational Creatures? Do they strain at a Gnat, and swallow a Camel? Can they think that it was harder to Almighty God, to create out of Nothing the more inanimate or Lifeless part of Heaven and Earth, then to compose that variety of excellent Creatures, and to infuse that great Spirit and Soul, by which they are respectively instincted or acted.  
But how pertinent his Distinction is betwixt fashioning and making, we will manifest by that remarkable Passage to our purpose in Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, Chap. 2. And being found in fashion as a man; he humbled himself, etc.  
Was Christ a real Man, or not? if not, than Reeve and Muggleton's Fleshly Mortal Notion of the Immortal Son of God falleth to the Ground; if a real man, then to be fashioned may import to be, and the Fashion of a thing passeth for the Being of a thing.  
Of what value now their Distinction is, they may consider if they please.  
But this Opinion is also against REASON.  
First, It is the nature of what is Eternal, or from all Everlasting to be Infinite, Unalterable and Almighty; for it oweth no Original or Preservation to another, and is equivolent in all other Properties to Eternity: Now where there is not proportion, it is highly to be suspected, That there is no such thing at all; but is a mere Chimaera, and real only in a Fiction.  
Secondly, That there is no resemblance is manifest, the whole visible World is full of Time, inconsistent with Eternity, as having Beginning and End; the Heavens have their set Motions, the Earth her distinct Seasons, in which are various Revolutions, and both filled with divers Temporary Agitations and Motions: Therefore it is impossible that Heaven and Earth could have been from Eternity, which are so filled with and made up of all the Instances of Time and Mutation; for should they, The Sun must always shine, the Rain descend, the Tide flow, the Winds blow, the Winter last, and every Alteration that is in Time be perpetual.  
Thirdly, It is utterly impossible, that Temporal Beings could receive their sustenence and growth from what is by nature Eternal; there being as great Contrariety, at least, Difference between them, as there is betwixt visible and invisible, spiritual and carnal things.  
Fourthly, Such as is the Food, such should the Life be; now if this visible World be eternal, than the Food that springs from it should nourish to a Life as Eternal as that World which does produce it. Nay, since man's Body was made of the Earth, we might well infer, That man's Body▪ as so made, is Eternal; and if Eternal, as such, not Mortal, which Experience tells us is an idle Tale. But let this suffice at present.  
But that this Conjecture had other Founders than Reeve and Muggleton, I prove, and that by two Instances.  
Augustine says, That there were several that affirmed, That the Water was not made by God, but was Coeternal. Next, a certain Sect called S●luciani taught, That the substance of the Creation, or whereof the World was made, was not made by God, but Eternally with God (than no Creature, and then God) as may at large be read in the said Augustine's Book of Heresies; this Heresy reigned about Anno 300. after Christ. To say nothing of that known Philosopher Aristole, who was sometimes Idolater; sometimes Atheist.  
Thirdly,  
THe third Secret, which only was revealed to Reeve and Muggleton, if we will believe them, is, That the Soul of man is generated or got by the Man and Woman with the Body, and that the Body and Soul are inseparable.  
That this is contrary to SCRIPTURE Testimony I prove.  
First, And the Spirit to God that gave it, Eccle. 12.7.  
No Carnal Generation can bring forth a pure Spirit▪ External Matter producing only External Matter of its own kind.  
But the soul of Man is a spirit, as the words expressed in Reeve's and Muggleton's own T.S.T. p. 44. Therefore no man gets the soul or spirit of a man when he generates the Body.  
Secondly, That which returns to God came from God; but the soul of every man returns to God, and consequently came from him.  
I omit mentioning more Scriptures, because the following Principle being a Consequent of this; what I prove there is proved here, namely, The Immortality of the soul, against the Atheistical Assertion, of the soul's mortality with the body: For where there is no Corruption, there could be no proper Generation; and if the soul be Immortal, it was not descended of Mortal Race, or begotten of elementory visible matter.  
That this is against all Right UNDERSTANDING, I prove.  
First, Such as is the Soul, such must that be which produceth it; but it is Spiritual. Now that which generates the Body of Man, being only and merely visible Matter, it cannot produce or generate an intellectual Soul or Spirit.  
Secondly, If Man got the Soul, then would that Soul be as well the Image of the Father as the Body, and partake as entirely of the Father's Nature and Disposition in all respects: But Experience shows us, That Sober Parents have Wild Children, and Religious Children Debauched Parents; therefore Parents do not generate the Soul.  
Thirdly, If Soul and Body be inseparably generated, than the Sexes as well belong to Souls as Bodies; the which as it is absurd, so would there be Men and Women in that very distinction to all Eternity: And who ever read of She Souls, or Female Souls?  
Fourthly, If Soul and Body were intermixtly and inseparably generated by Man, then in all Anatomies it were no more difficult to find out the Soul than any other Part: and in case of opening or dissecting of Living men, as I have at the University, seen living Beasts by Anatomists, it would not be impossible, but rational, that one should behold the very Thoughts, Purposes, and Intents of such men's Hearts and Souls. But because this were most vain, we shall conclude, The Soul is not generated with, nor inseparable from the Body, but of an Immaterial Nature.  
That this is no newer than the rest, and was esteemed Heresy in the Primitive Times, I will Evidence.  
There was a Sect called Lucifrians, from one Lucifer of Sardania, and the Tertullianists, who held, That the Soul was transfused by generation from the Parents to their Children, and that the Soul is of the Flesh, and Substance of the Flesh of which read Socrates, in his 3d Book, and 7th Chapter; also, Augustine of Heresies; and Theodorus, his 3d Book and 5th Chapter, about Anno 350.  
Fourth,  
THE Fourth sublime Mystery of those Fantastic and Imaginary Persons is a Consequence of the former, namely, the Mortality of the Soul, That the Soul and Body go to Dust, and rise together at a general Resurrection.  
That it is inconsistent with SCRIPTURE, I prove.  
First, And the Lord God form Man of the Dust of the Ground, and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life, and Man became a Living Soul, Gen. 2.7.  
If the Breath of Life made a dead Body live, than the Privation of the Breath of Life makes a living Body dead; since the life it has was from and is whilst that Breath inspired remains in it; and if so, than not the Soul, but the Body dies.  
2. This is further proved thus, If it was living Breath before it entered into the Body, it must be living Breath after it is withdrawn from the Body; since the Body makes no alteration upon it, but it upon the Body; as from a life-less Heap to a living Body, and from a living to a dead Body again.  
3. Though some of those things which are living may die, because they live by the borrowed or lent Life of another; yet very Life, as Life, cannot die; for since Life and Death are contrary, as Light and Darkness, because very Light can never in itself be utterly extinguished by Darkness, so as to become very Darkness, nor Truth Untruths by Error, it is impossible that the Breath of Life, or Soul of Man, can suffer death, as here understood; for that were very annihilation itself, or being from an intelligent Something made Nothing.  
Secondly, And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God hast thou also brought Evil upon the Widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her Son? And he stretched himself over the Child Three times, and cried and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, Let this Child's Soul come into him again: And the Lord heard the Voice of Elijah, and the Soul of the Child came into him again, and he revived, 1 Kings 17.20, 21, 22.  
If the Soul was with-drawn when the Body lay dead, as the place proveth, than the Soul lay not dead from all Motion, Life and Heat in the Body, as one inseparable Lump. But the Soul was separated, and when it did return, according to Elijah's Prayer, and had resumed its forsaken dead Body, it revived the Body again; therefore the Soul died not with the Body, nor at all; inasmuch as if it had died, when separated, it could not have revived the dead Body, when returned.  
In short, This place most expressly proves, 1st, The Body's death, from the Soul's separation: 2dly, The Soul's certain departure from the Body: 3dly, The Soul's living after separation.  
Thirdly, Then shall the Dust return to the Dust, as it was; and the Spirit to God, that gave it, Eccl. 12.7.  
This place very evidently harmonizeth with the former, and is a pregnant Instance to the Confutation of that Atheistical Opinion, and as pertinent here, as where mentioned. For, as Man is composed of Body and Spirit, so they have two Originals; the one from below, Dust; the other from above, the Breath of Life: They have also two Dooms, the Dust to the Dust, from whence it came; the Soul to God, from whence it came, to be by him sentenced to the Blessed or Cursed State forever, according to the end of that Chapter, For God will bring every secret thing to Judgement; from whence I argue,  
1. That only can properly return to Earth that came from it, that is Dust.  
But the Soul never came from Dust nor Earth, as Reeve and Muggleton affirm, p. 45. T.S.T.  
Therefore it is impossible that the Soul can truly be said to return to the Earth.  
2. That which returns to God is what more immediately and eminently came from him, and that cannot die.  
But the Soul doth to the end aforesaid.  
Therefore the Soul came from him, and dyeth not, neither can it with the Body return to Dust.  
Fourthly, Be not afraid of them that kill the Body, and after that have no more that they can do, Luke 12.4.  
If Reeve and Muggleton speak Truth, than he that kills the Body kills the Soul too; for he cannot kill the one without the other.  
But Christ Jesus, the Author of Truth and Salvation, saith, The Body may be killed by Man, and the Soul remain alive; therefore Reeve and Muggleton are Liars against Christ and his Doctrine.  
The Body's Death is Natural, the Soul's Spiritual; Man's Power extendeth but to one, and consequently the latter is independent of the former.  
Fifthly, For me to live is Christ, to die is Gain; but if I live in the Flesh (or Body) this is the Fruit of my Labour: yet what I shall choose, I wot not; for I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and be with Christ, which is far better, Phil. 1.21, 23. From whence I plainly argue,  
1. If to die was Gain, than he was not to enjoy less of that divine Consolation which he had living, since to live was Christ. But he that has lain Body and Soul One Thousand Six Hundred Years in the Grave, and may for aught we know One Thousand Six Hundred more, must needs have lost not only a little, but all that he enjoyed Living, instead of further Gain: Therefore I infer, Their Principle of the Soul's Mortality is contrary to the Testimony of the Apostle; for with him to die was Gain. That this was the Apostle's sense I proceed yet further to make appear from his own words.  
2. The Reason of his straight was, Whether to live to serve Christ, or die to enjoy him: But this had been no straight, if he was to lose what he had, and not to enjoy him after departure in any sense, as the Dead don't; therefore it was not the Apostle's Judgement, though it was Wicked Reeve's, and Blasphemous Muggleton's, That the Soul is deprived with the Body by Death, of all Divine Enjoyments of God, or Punishment from him, till the Day of Resurrection. For the Apostle counted it far better, to depart, and be with Christ; which had been a Vain, if an In-obtainable Desire, as would follow from their Anti-Scriptural Opinion.  
Sixthly, And when he had opened the Fifth Seal, I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the Testimony which they had held; and they cried with a loud Voice saying, How long, O Lord Holy and True, dost thou not Judge and Avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth? Revel. 6.9, 10.  
If their Souls lived after their Bodies were Slain, than they did not die together; but the Scripture proves, their Souls lived after their Bodies were Slain: for they cried for Vengeance on the Bloodthirsty Inhabitants of the World; therefore Souls are not Mortal, as Bodies are.  
In short, Their Bodies were slain, their Souls were alive; their Bodies were in the Grave, their Souls under the Altar, worshipping God Day and Night forever and ever.  
That this is against REASON I further Prove.  
First, There is nothing Mortal that is not Elementary, or composed of visible Matter or Substance; but the Body is that only part of Man, which is so composed.  
And consequently, the Body is the only Mortal Part of Man.  
Secondly, That only can be subject to visible and material Generations, Agitations, Motions, Privations, Diminutions, Increases, Alterations, Operations, and Corruptions, which is of a Visible, Elementary, and Corporal Substance (for an Invisible none ever saw subject to any one of them) but of such is the Body, and not the Soul (by Reeve and Muggleton their own assertion, of Man's Nature to be of the Faith which is God's Nature.)  
Therefore the Body is subject only to Generation and Corruption▪ and not the Soul.  
That the Soul is not of the same Nature of the Body, I thus prove;  
Thirdly, That which is intellectual, which in its pure Nature knows, comprehends, governs and order all visible, elementary and corporical Beings, and yet is Invisible, Spiritual, Rational, and Internal (as is manifest from its Heavenly Meditations, its secret Thoughts, its serious Reflects, acute Memory, and profound Reasonings about the Causes and Effects of all things) cannot but be of a Nature more refined, excellent and noble, then to fall under the same Generations Revolutions and Corruptions, those inferior visible Beings are subject to. But such is the Nature of Man's Soul, as daily experience manifests to all that will not wilfully Blind their Eyes; therefore though Man's Body be Mortal as being of that grosser Substance and elementary Nature, yet his Soul is of an immortal Nature, and can receive no Alteration of Being by any that may or can happen to the Body, which is but a Well▪ Organzed and disposed Instrument for the Soul to exert or put forth itself by, according to the good Pleasure of God, and that creaturely Prudence necessary to be eyed in and about all Worldly Concernments.  
Thus much and enough to this Point.  
That this is as Gray-headed as Atheism, we may suppose; and that it is not only their only Revelation I prove.  
John the 22th Bishop of Rome, and some in the Countries of Arabia, held this very Doctrine, affirming, That Souls and Bodies died and rose together; of which read Origen, and Eusebius Pamphilus, lib. 6. chap. 36. nor can any be ignorant that converse with Story, that long before, since, and at this day, where Reeve and Muggleton were never thought on, this wretched Opinion is but too rise, Anno 249. 1423. years since.  
Fifthly,  
BUt their most admirable Secret of all is, That God descended with his Body in the shape of a Man, and dissolved himself into the Virgin's Womb, and so brought forth himself a Man; who after he had lived to such an Age, was Crucified, and really died, or ceased to be either God or Man for Three Days and Nights.  
That this is in three Paticulars highly inconsistent with Scripture I prove.  
First, God did not so transmute his divine Nature into Fleshly Mortal Nature.  
1. Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet Fifty Years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto thames Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am, John 8.56, 57, 58.  
If that which was before Abraham, and yet then in being the same, was God, as none that own the Scriptures do deny; then because that outward visible Body was not before Abraham, that was not God: The first all grant, the second none reasonably doubt; for Christ was crucified about the Three and Thirtieth year of his Life: And then I hope none will believe the Eternal Deity was Transmuted, or Transubstantiated into that Visible Body; for so Christ's Answer would not have been true: for that Mortal Body, which say Reeve and Muggleton was the Eternal God, had a Beginning, and was not of that Age the Jews said it to be.  
2. Whose are the Fathers, and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever, Rom. 9 5.  
If Christ, as concerning the Flesh, was not God, as the Text manifestly implieth (by a Distinction betwixt his Appearance in that Body of Flesh, and his Divine Essence or Being, with their Originals) then that fleshly Body was not God, or the Eternal God was not Substantially Transmuted into that Fleshly Body.  
Secondly, Neither could Elias be God's Deputy to transact in his stead the Affairs of Heaven, during that Journey which these Impostors affirm God to have taken, from any Scripture Evidence.  
1. For my Father is greater than I, John 14.28.  
And he kneeled down and prayed, Father, if thou be willing, remove this Cup from Me; nevertheless, not my Will, but thine be done, Luke 22.41, 42.  
If Elias was that Father which Christ spoke of, and prayed and cried to, as Reeve and Muggleton assert; then either he that cried to him was not God, but Elias really God (and so they both contradict their own Doctrine, who tell us, That he that was born of the Virgin, and died on the Cross, was the Everlasting Father) or else, that which needeth and cryeth for help of another, was greater than that, which was able to succour and deliver it; which how absurd it is let all sober men judge: therefore he to whom he cried and prayed in all straits, and whom he had affirmed to have received all his Doctrine and Commission from, and who was greater than all, was the only true God, and not any glorified Creature. For God could not leave Elias his Deputy, and not leave him his Power, which if he did, be left Himself; since without his Almighty Power he were not God.  
Secondly, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent, and revealed them unto Babes. The Hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. And this is Life Eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And now Father, glorify thou me with the Glory which I had with thee before the World began, John 17.1, 3, 5.  
On this place I raise these three brief Arguments;  
1. If Elias was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor Lord of Heaven and Earth, but a created Being, as all confess, than it was not unto Elias that Jesus returned that Heavenly Thanksgiving, but to his own Father, greater than all, who is Lord of Heaven and Earth.  
2. If he to whom he prayed be that only true God, and that to know him, and Christ Jesus whom he hath sent, be Life Eternal, then was it not Elias to whom he prayed, because all grant, that he is not the only true God, nor did he so love the World as to send his only begotten into the World, that through believing in him it might obtain Eternal Life. This most plainly knocks down all Conceits of a Deputed God, that Christ should pray unto, because supposing that such a thing could be, yet he could not be that only true God. whom to know were Life Eternal: but this to whom Jesus prayed, whom say Reeve and Muggleton was Elias, saith Christ Jesus, was that only true God, whom to know is Life Eternal.  
3. This God to whom Christ prayed, that he would glorify him, was the same Eternal God with whom he had Glory before the World began; but Elias was Two Thousand Years or more after the World was made, instead of being before the World began; and consequently, Elias was not that God and Father, unto whom the Lord God made his Supplications.  
Object. But Muggleton will tell me, That Elias was enthroned with that Godlike Power, Glory, Wisdom and Majesty, that rendered him all that which was needful to make able to answer all those Petitions, and what ever else was necessary.  
Answ. If the Majesty, Power, Wisdom and Glory of God were left with Elias, I would fain know what God had to die with; for 'tis his Power, Glory and Divine Wisdom that makes him, God; If Elias had them, God left himself destitute of what made him God: for how can a man leave his Properties alive behind him that truly man him, and yet be said to die in Reeve and Muggleton' s sense, which is, That all those Faculties And Properties die with a man? would one not rather say, that such one does not die, because, that which makes him a true man lives? So that their Conceit is spoiled in the overturning of this one thing; for, show the impossibility of God's dying, and yet leaving his Power, Wisdom and Glory with Elias, and the whole Fabric, filled with their many Chambers of Imagery, will fall to the Ground; for, say they, without a God's dying, and becoming from Immortal, Mortal, and from Mortal, Immortal again, the whole Heaven and Earth would be out of order, and no right Knowledge or Salvation can be procured or arrived at.  
Much might be urged from many other Scriptures, as that God raised him, and that he is set down on the Right-Hand of the Most High, but let this suffice.  
Thirdly, Nor is there any thing in the whole Scriptures of Truth, that so much as incourages any to believe the Mortality of the Immortal God.  
1. Even from Everlasting to Everlasting, thou art God, Psal. 90.2.  
He that was from Everlasting, and is to Everlasting, never ceaseth to be, as that which dies▪ doth; but the true God was from Everlasting, and is to Everlasting; therefore Reeve and Muggleton's Mortal God is not the true God; or, the true God never ceaseth to be.  
2. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the Ends of the Earth, fainteth not? Isa. 40.28.  
He that could never faint, could never die, because Death is more than a Degree beyond fainting (though fainting be a Temporary withdrawing of Life) but the true God and Creator of the Ends of the Earth never could faint; therefore the true God could never die.  
3. And one of the Malefactors said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom? And Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise, Luke 23.42, 43.  
If Christ, the Author of all Truth, spoke Truth, as most unquestionably he did; then both himself and the Malefactor were in Paradise that day, and consequently, it was untterly impossible that they should both die from all visible and invisible Life, Sense, Understanding and Enjoyment. But I hope, none are so impudent as to say, Christ spoke not the very simple Truth, and so would have deceived the poor man; and yet I know not how far Muggleton will go in this matter, since he told me, that Moses in his Discourse of the Creation, set the Cart before the Horse; and that if Paul were alive, he would reprove him, and so censure that holy Spirit by which he wrote.  
Therefore it was not the Eternal Deity that suffered Death, but that Body of outward Flesh, subjected to all those natural Passions of Heat, Cold, Hunger, Thirst, Life and Death (as ours are, sin only excepted) which the Eternal Infinite Creator had provided, through which to manifest his everlasting Wisdom, Council and Mercy for the Redemption of Mankind.  
That these three Branches, of this sottish Opinion are all of them greatly repugnant to that Understanding God has afforded men to measure and distinguish things by, I prove.  
First, It was impossible for God to transubstantiate himself from an Immortal Deity to a mortal Man.  
1. It must suppose God's begetting himself, which is absurd, and impossible; since being begotten, supposeth him to have had a Beginning (that gave Beginning to all) and to beget, supposeth him to have been before he was begotten, and so before he was.  
2. Such as is the Begetter, such must the Begotten be: We see, Men get Men; Horses, Horses; Fish, Fish, and every Seed has its own Body, as say Reeve and Muggleton; then, by good consequence, the Immortal God must have begotten himself an Immortal God, one that could not die by the Hand or Cruelty of his own Creature.  
3. It is as impossible for God to become a Creature, or to dissolve his own Infinite, Immortal, Eternal Nature, into a Finite, Mortal, Created or Generated Nature; as for a Mortal Created Nature to be refined, preferred, and transmuted into an Infinite, Immortal, Creating Nature. In short, It is as impossible for God, as God, to become a dying Man, as for a dying man to be changed into an Immortal Eternal God: They are reciprocally impossible and Blasphemous.  
Secondly, It is absurd, and Untrue affirm, that Elias was God's Deputy, and he to whom Christ prayed when in that Body of FLESH.  
1. He that is Infinite, is every where, and circumscribed to no particular place; but Scripture, Reason, and Reeve and Muggleton (yet they are seldom of one mind) own and declare the Infiniteness of God, therefore God is every where, and if every where, than not excluded Heaven, the Habitation of his Throne, and consequently Elias was not God's Deputy, neither was it any ways needful that he should be.  
2. That which in any sense may be said so want, is not God, who is all in all to himself; but who needed a Deputy, neither was Omnipresent, nor Almighty, and therefore not the only True God.  
3. Either Christ did not stand in need when on Earth, or he did; if not, than he was not sincere in his Supplications; if he did, than the Omnipotency was with Elias (he that supplies Wants is greater than he that is supplied) and consequently, he that cried was not that Everlasting God and Father, but Elias.  
4. Elias was not so considerable as Moses, who was the first Grand Commissioner of God's Dispensations to the Sons of men (as Reeve and Muggleton affirm) why then should Elias be preferred to Moses, a Meek Man, Israel's Leader; and who said of Christ himself, That a Prophet like unto me shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, him shall you hear in all things (than not Reeve and Muggleton in any new thing) 'Tis strange therefore, that Moses was not rather of the two, elected to represent him in Heaven, who was a Figure of him on Earth. But though Reeve would not tell us so, I am of the mind I know the Reason of it, namely, That Christ did not call, Moses, Moses, but Eli, Eli, when upon the Cross; and I am persuaded he had no other Ground for that Conceit, not considering that Eli, Eli, are Hebrew words, importing no more Elias, Elias, than they do Moses, Moses, but My God, My God, as the place expressly shows us.  
Much more might be said, but let this serve.  
Thirdly, That the Immortal God could never Die; or cease to be, is manifest, and the contrary Blasphemously False.  
1. If God was he that made all things, and by whom they are upheld, as all believe, that believe there is a God at all, then had he ceased to be, the Creation had ceased to have been upheld; and consequently all had fallen into its first Chaos, or the World can subsist without Him.  
2. That he, whose Nature it was never to have Beginning, and ever to live without Variation, could never become so contrary to his own Nature and Being, as to change, die or cease to be; but such was the true God, therefore he never died.  
3. If Saints live, move, and have their being in God, as say Reeve and Muggleton, pag. 201. D.L.G. then either God never died, or there were no Saints when the Jews Crucified Christ, or the Saints died too. They deny them all; they say, God Dyed, and there were Saints, and they Lived, Moved and had their Being in God, though Dead; which how all, or any of them can hang together, let sober People judge.  
4. If God died, who lived, and by whom? for nothing can live of itself, that had beginning from, or dependence on another, as had all the visible World on God; therefore because all lived, and was preserved, that had its Being from God, He from whom they had their Being, could not be annihilated whilst they remained in being.  
4. If God was raised by Elias, then either Elias was the True God, or Elias the Creature was stronger than Jehovah the Great Creator. Let this serve to confute, and forever to overturn these idle Chimeras of those filthy Dreamers Reeve and Muggleton.  
That this Blasphemous Conceit of the Immortal God's Mortality, is not new, I shall make appear.  
1st, Valentinus is said, opened, to have published, at Rome, That Christ brought a Body down from Heaven, and that he after some time passed through the Virgin's Body again. Noetus affirmed, That the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were Flesh, or that one Person of the Son of Man, or that Person so long since at Jerusalem, to be Father, Son and Spirit; and that when he suffered on the Cross, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit died. See Euseb. his 4th Book and 10th Chap. Ireneus Epiphanius Heres. 31. & 57 about Anno 150. which is 1522. years since. What Strange New Revelation this is!  
Lastly,  
I May mention another of their Tenets, held at this day by all Calvinists abroad, and of several Sects in these Nations; namely, Predestination, or that God from all Eternity, without any other Inducement than his own Pleasure, hath decreed some for Salvation, and some for Damnation; contrary to which, all their Obedience or Rebellion shall be in vain, to alter his Determination.  
That this Principle is Accursed by SCRIPTURE, I prove.  
First, The Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him, and the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him; but if the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed, and keep my Statutes, he shall surely live, he shall not die, Ez. 18.20, 21.  
1. If Righteousness or Wickedness are the Grounds of God's Rewarding or Punishing the Souls of men, then is there no Predestination previous, without consideration had to their Works; but the Text affirms most plainly, therefore such Decrees are denied and disowned.  
2. If Man may turn from his Righteousness and Wickedness, then are the Means no more inevitably predestinated for men to use, than before mentioned; but men may turn from either, and accordingly they will be rewarded; therefore no such Predestinated Damnation or Salvation.  
Secondly, For it is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the Knowledge of the Truth, 1 Tim. 2.3, 4.  
If the Apostle writ by the Spirit of God, that gives to know the Mind of God; than it was the Good Will of God, that all men, not excluding any upon a Predestination, should come to the Knowledge of the Truth, and be saved: And consequently, there is no Predestinated Restraint upon men's Understandings, from knowing the Truth, nor fore-appointed Bar from their enjoying the End of such True Knowledge, even the Salvation of their Souls.  
Thirdly, The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise (as some men count slackness) but is long▪ suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Repentance, 2 Pet. 3.9.  
The Long-suffering of God either related to the Elect, or Reprobate, or Neither.  
Not to the Elect, because there is no need of fearing their Perishing.  
Not to the Reprobate, for there is no possibility of their Repentance.  
Therefore to neither; and consequently, either the place is spurious, or deceitful; or else those kind of Elections and Reprobations are mere Phantisms. Let these few Instances serve, of those hundreds that might be mentioned, most expressly to confirm the same.  
That this is highly Inconsistent with REASON, I briefly prove.  
First, It renders God most Unwise, to make so many thousand Creatures on purpose to Rebel against him, to Kill, Lie, Steal, Blaspheme, and commit all manner of Outrageous Wickedness to the grieving of his own Spirit, the making him Repent he had made the World, and Obstructing of his Glorious Work of Reformation.  
Secondly, It greatly Disparageth his Justice, which consists in proportioning Rewards and Punishments to the Good and Evil Works of Men, and overturns both, by making the Eternal States necessary and unavoidable upon a Predestination, without any Regard to their Works; so that man is damned for not doing what he can't do, no more than it is possible for him to break an Almighty Decree.  
Thirdly, It quite destroys his Mercy, and renders him the most Cruel of all Being's; for instead of not being willing, or desiring the Death of a Sinner, He is here made to desire, and take Pleasure in it too; nay, so essential is this Unutterable Cruelty to his Glory (as say the Asserters of this Opinion) that it would be lessened or eclipsed without it: Oh Infamous!  
Fourthly, But above all things, it strikes at the very Root of God's Rectitude, and Faithfulness, and makes him worse than the worst of Men or Devils: for whilst he says, Your Sins have kept good Things from you; as I live, I delight not in the Death of a Sinner; Repent, and that Iniquity shall not be your Ruin; How long would I have gathered you, and ye would not? But now God commands all to Repent; God is no Respecter of Persons, but they that fear him in every Age shall be accepted, etc. with many more; they make him but to Compliment with Wicked Men, and speak them fair in words, meaning nothing less in his Heart, having Preordained them to eternal Wrath.  
Fifthly, This Principle would defile his eternally inherent Holiness, by making him as well the Father of Sin, as of Destruction; for men are either Damned for something, or for nothing; if for nothing, that were most Wicked in these Predestinarians account, then for something; and what is that? Sin: very well; and how came they to this sin? they committed it; and how came they to do so? they would do it; why? could they have avoided it? by no means; where's the Difference then betwixt being Damned for not doing what they could not, and doing nothing? The Predestination was not, that all Evil Men, that wilfully withstood Mercy, should be Damned; for they were ordained never to receive it; but that such a Number, consisting of such and such particular Persons, should Vnalterably and Vnavoidably be Damned only to Glorify God.  
Sixthly, But this would slain the Glory of the Almighty, in that neither in himself, nor from the Redemption and Salvation of the souls of men, his Glory is great enough, unless it be completed in the Eternal Destruction of far the greatest part of Mankind.  
Seventhly, This destroys, all Good Works; for, may all say, Neither can my Good nor Evil Works make one Hair white or black, add or diminish, in reference to God's unalterable Decree; and therefore will I give myself unto the Liberty of the Flesh, and enjoy the Pleasures of this Life, whilst I can have them.  
Eighthly, It destroys all Government, since who cares how desperate he is, or what Injury he does, who conceiting to himself his Post is pitched, his State set, and that unchangeably; but breaking all Laws, takes his Revenge on what would bring him to condign Punishment for his Exorbitancies.  
To conclude, and come somewhat closer to the Persons concerned: What signifies their coming to call them to repent, that cannot be saved if they do? Or to warn such to repent that cannot be damned? What signifies their Commission? or their Cursing, or Blessing? For can they bless him to Life that is ordained beforehand to be damned? Or can they curse him to Death who is preordained to Eternal Life? If therefore Men are preordained to Salvation or Damnation, to what purpose should any fear their Curse, or prise their Blessing, since neither can alter or change the Condition of any Person; and what more contrary to the Mind of the Merciful God, who is willing that all should come▪ unto the Knowledge of the Truth and be saved?  
That Antiquity both knew and abhorred this Opinion is Manifest.  
Josephus, in his 18th Book of Antiquities, and 2d Chap. also Epiphanius in his Preface to his first Book of Heresy: again, Eusebius in his 5th Book chap. 13. and Socrates in his 1st Book and chap. 17. and you will be fully informed of the Abettors of this dangerous and Wicked Opinion, 
about Anno 200.  namely a Sect of the Pharisees; also Florinus & Blastus, against whom Ireneus Bishop of Lions in France wrote two Epistles, and a Book called Ogdous, wherein he tells Florinus, 
1472. years since.  That when himself was a Child and with Famous Christian Polycarpus, who conversed with John that conversed with Christ, he remembered him to be busy about the Emperor's Court; and further tells him, that had the Apostle John but lived to have heard that Damnable Doctrine which makes God the Author of Evil, he would have said, Good God, unto what times half Thou reserved me? and tells him, that in Publishing so Wicked an Opinion, he had declared that which all the Heretics before had never durst to pronunce plainly, with much more to this purpose, against him, the Sect called Manichees, from one Manes, held and promoted this Opinion of Fatal destiny, who Muggleton-like, is reported to have called himself Christ, and the Comforter, and published the Work of one Buddas in his own Name, calling It a New Dispensation; All which, Reader, I assure thee Histories do inform Us to have been known in the 2d, 3, 4, 5, and 600. Years after Christ, which is above a 1000 Years since; In which Time many were the Impudent Spirits that assumed to themselves as great Authority as Muggleton in Reeve's Absence doth at this time; namely, Simon Magus, who had so far possessed the Romans with his Sorcery, of his (pretended) Divinity (calling himself to the Samaritans the Father; to the Jews the Son, to the Gentiles the Holy Spirit) as the Heathens erected a Statue or Image of him in the time of Claudius at Rome having this Inscription, Simoni Deo Sancto, to the Holy God Simon. Next, One Helen a Woman, that accompanied him, whom he called the Principle Understanding, much like Muggleton's Daughter, who Reeve said should be the Chiefest of Women. Eusebius in his 2d Book, and 12, 13, and 14, Chap. after this One, Menander, said, to have been a Sorcerer, and the Disciple of Simon, went up and down, deluding Silly Credulous People, by affirming to them, he was the great Power of God, come down from Heaven, and that all were to believe in him, and be baptised in his manner, or they could not be saved, but those that did should never die, read Eusebius in his 3d Book Chap. 23. Ireneus Book 1. Chap. 21. Epiphan. haeres. 22. Again, Carpocrates is reported to have (like Reeves and Muggelton) patched his Opinion (who was so vain Glorious as to affirm he knew all things) out of Simon, Menander, Nicholas, (from whence came the Nicolaitans in the Revelations) Saturninus Basilides, etc. and see Epiphan. Haeres. 27. also Augustin of Heresies. Again, We find that Eusebius tells us of one Montanus (whereof Montanists or Catafrygians are called) taught in Phrygia, that he was the Holy Ghost, as may be seen in the 5th Book of Eusebius 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, Chapters. Also that one Buddas affirmed, that he was born of a Virgin (as true as Muggletons' being the Last Witness of God) This Buddas writ a Book, and in his swelling Pride styled it Mysteries, much like the Whimsies of Reeve and Muggleton, in their Transcendent Spiritual Treatise; next, he wrote a Book called the Muggleton's Divine Looking Glass: His End was to break his Neck; 'Tis to be feared that a worse will be miserable Muggletons, even Torment of Spirit, as Reeve is said to have left the World in. To conclude, Noetus, the Ringleader of that great Mystery, (never revealed till within these 20. years, says Reeve and Muggleton) namely Death's Power three days and three Nights: He through the height of his Imaginations, called himself Moses, and Aaron his Brother, as Reeves called▪ himself and Muggleton, T.S.T. see Epiphanius Haeres. 57 By all which, Reader, I am not without hopes, but it does appear, how Falsely, and with what Treachery these Persons have dealt with poor silly People, who not being satisfied in what they did know, hay pined their Faith on the sleeves of such as told them things they did not know, and so have been given up to believe a Lie; For what is more evident, then that in this very Trial he, and his deceased Colleague are found guilty of Error, Treachery, and great Deceit; Therefore, Reader, delay not to pass the Just Sentence of Impostor and Counterfeit upon them, and their Commission, who would raise to themselves a New Sect out of the Ruins of old Heresies, and that under the Pretence, of Choice Revelations, wherein there is no Proof beyond their bare Assertions, and to make them pass, forge an Authority from Heaven (which loathes both them, and their Lies) to back and recommend them as unheard of Mysteries.  
O! sell not thy Reason, who ever thou art, enslave not thy Judgement, nor rob God's Light and Grace of its Office, to guide and teach thee in the Denial of those Evils that are to be forsaken, and in Embracing whatsoever ought to be followed; Bring not thyself under the Power of an Ignorant, Arrogant, Blasphemous, and Sottish Man, but remember that God Almighty, who cannot lie, hath promised, that in the last days He would be the Teacher of his People by his Spirit of Truth, and where is the Habitation of the most-High, but in the Contrite and Humble Hearts of Men? For whasoever may or can be known of God, is manifested within, who having illuminated all, and given to every Man a Talon; into it, Reader, have thy Mind retired, and wait to have it subject thereunto, and thou shalt come to know him, (whom to know aright is Life Eternal) But as I have plainly shown their abominable Cheat in obtruding Old Fables for New Revelations upon People (whereby I have discharged the first part of my Promise) So for a Confirmation of my Judgement concerning Muggleton, and to accomplish this abridged Discourse, take my following Relation, with the same impartiality that I give it thee.  
I Have been twice to visit Lodowick Muggleton, and at each time I stayed too long to repeat all, or the very words which passed betwixt us; yet shall I faithfully write something of the matter and words, as near as I at present do remember them.  P. 
Art thou the last Witness that ever shall be? Muggleton, Yes; and there shall never be another.  P. 
Who sent thee?  M. 
God spoke to John Reeve, and he spoke to me.  P. 
Is that all thou hast to produce, only J. R's word for it? to this he avoided. Again,  P. 
Thou sayest, God did not create the Earth and the Heavens, he only fathomed them; making them Coeternal with God; but Moses said he did: Let me see a Bible!  M. 
Moses put the Cart before the Horse.  This I bore for the next Question's sake. P. 
Paul the Apostle, who also wrote, by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, saith, God created all things, or made them; and the World is a great part of all things: besides, if it was before he made it, in this sense, must it not be God? since nothing which is uncreated can be a Creature?  M. 
If Paul were living, I would have reproved him for that: Come not here to Dispute, but Believe; I say it, that's enough.  P. 
Canst thou reprove the Holy Ghost; for he spoke by it?  M. 
Yes.  P. 
That's Blasphemy; besides, if thou sayst it, must I therefore believe it, because thou sayst it?  
At this he grew enraged; and but for an Acquaintance by, and a Friend of his, I had doubtless been Cursed at that time.  
The next time I came (which a Friend in company) I found him sitting by the Chimney Corner, quaffing with some of his Followers and Benefactors, as what we saw before us did Evidence. My first salute was thus,  P. 
How is it Lodowick? methinks thou look'st with thy old threadbare black Suit, like a sequestered begging Priest.  M. 
I am a Priest.  P. 
Art thou? Of what Order?  M. 
The Order of Aaron.  P. 
Aaron? where be thy Bells then?  M. 
I have them in the Mystery.  P. 
Mystery? for shame don't talk of a Mystery; for there was some such thing that did belong to that Order; things were altogether External, Typical and Figurative: Methinks this were enough to show, that thou art no ways concerned in any Christian Commission, who art not a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck, but Aaron, whose Priesthood is at an end, as said the Apostle to the Hebrews, chap. 7. so that thou hast Vnchristianed thy whole Commission, and brings it under the Law of a Carnal Commandment; and therefore has no Part nor Portion in the Power of an Endless Life, as saith the same Apostle. He interrupted.  M. 
Have a care, Life and Death's before thee; therefore choose Life and live, etc.  P. 
But Lodowick, Thou pretendest to know the Dimensions of God, how high may he be?  M. 
Betwixt your Height and his, (meaning a Friend then present.)  P. 
O Abominable! Well L. Muggleton, God will blast thee forever, thou Presumptuous and Blasphemous Wretch, If thou turnest not from the Wickedness, with much more.  M. 
Thou shalt be Damned, God has decreed thou shalt be Damned; thou art of the seed of the Serpent.  P. 
Why then didst thou set Life and Death before me just now, (saying thou hadst more mind I should be saved, than any of the Quakers) if I am ordained to be damned? Is it not great Deceit, to exhort a man to choose what he cannot have, though he bid for it, and to refuse that which he is unable to avoid? But Muggleton, I will not say, that I serve such a God; no, my God never ordained thee to be Damned, whether thou dost Well or Ill: this destroys all Rewards and Punishments, and makes Evil and Good unavoidable.  M. 
I would not give a Pinn for that God which would save us both, now I have Damned thee.  P. 
Why dost thou talk of a God; for thou sayst, Thy God can die; did the Immortal God ever cease to be?  M. 
I would not give a Rush for that God which can't die.  P. 
I say, thou and thy God shall to the Pit, from whence ye came, where is Death and Darkness forever: how can God cease to be, and yet be God; since if he ceased, every thing that remained in being must have been greater, since below ceasing to be is nothing? But suppose this Nonsense and Blasphemies; how rose he again?  M. 
God left Elias with Power.  P. 
Then Elias was greater than God; for that which raiseth is greater than that which is raised; but if the Power never died, the Power was God, and that which died not God: O, Hellish Impudence and Blasphemy! O, Muggleton, thy End will be Destruction.  M. W. P. 
I say thou art a Damned Devil; remember Thomas Lo, who was the Wickedest Devil that ever I knew, who never went out of his bed after I Cursed him.  P. 
Thy Curses are under my Feet; Tho. Lo was known to be an infirm Man in his Natural Constitution (as well as by his great Labours) for near these sixteen years, who is gone to rest: But art thou not ashamed to say, he never went out of his Bed; who was as well as he used to be, and often after abroad? and when he fell sick, was often up, and changed his Lodging before he died, having been ill three Weeks. Is this thy Infallible Spirit, that thou suggests Lies to thyself and others?  M. 
I heard so.  P. 
Is that enough for one that pretends, to be the last Witness of the High and Mighty God, to say for a Lie, I heard so? Cover thy Face for Shame.  M. 
He writ me a Curse, and he writ a very good Hand too; but for all that, He was a Damned Devil, and thou W.P. art as arrant a Devil as he, and you shall be Damned together.  P. 
Lodowick, in this thou hast told another Lie; for it was an Apprentice that writ it: Where is thy Unerring Spirit now, thou vile Impostor? And for being Devils, and Damned together, God rebuke thee; only this know, that I am willing to go where he went, and whither we go thou canst not come, without great and unfeigned Repentance.  M. 
Just so, many of you Quakers have died after my Curse, amongst others William Smith.  P. 
This is another Notorious Lie; for the man is yet Living: Well, Muggleton, God will reckon with thee for all thy Wickedness.  M. 
Thou art a Cheat, and a Deceiver W.P. (my Friend spoke)  
G.W. Muggleton, have a care what thou sayst: for though it is our Religion, to forgive Injuries; yet perhaps his Friends would question thee, and make thee prove it.  M. 
I care not a Part for Him, nor his Friends, nor the Greatest Man in England.  P. 
Thy Black Mouth is no Slander; but know, Muggleton, That from my Youth I have sought God, and dared not willingly to abuse a Worm: and as my Friend has said, thou knowest there are Laws, other People make use of to vindicate their Credit by▪ but I forgive thee; thereby thou mayst know the Difference betwixt our Gods, and our Religions: thou Revilest, and possessed Curses upon me, I Freely Forgive thee.  M. 
I care not a TURD for you, nor the Laws neither.  
This, with many more Unsavoury Foul Expressions fell from his Mouth. He also affirmed, That God never gave a Law, but to Devils; and that Moses and the Israelites were so. I asked him, If he received a Law? He said, Yes. I asked him for whom? He said, For the People of these Nations to whom he was sent. I told him, Th●● that rendered both himself, and those to whom he was sent, Devils by his own Assertion.  
In short. Such Impertinency, such Blasphemy, such sottish Nonsense, and such unsavory, Illbred Expressions, I don't remember to have heard from the Mouth of any man, pretending to Religion. If this be your Prophet (you that believe in him) your last Witness, the only Messenger of the Spiritual Dispensation, and Grand Commissioner of Heaven, whom all must credit, or be damned: For Shame own not so manifest an Impostor, so foul a Wretch, so ill an Example; his Arrogancy, his Ignorance, his Sottish Life, his Cowardliness, and finally, his Abominable Lying spirit is far from the Holy, Patient, Suffering, Selfdenying and Heavenly Life of Christ and his Apostles, who being Reviled, they Blessed. I therefore entreat, nay, warn the Reader hereof; and to fear the Infinite Almighty God, whose Mighty Judgements (for Sin in the Consciences of Men and Women) are come; and not to Worship, this Beast, nor any Evil Thing, by bowing to his dark Imaginations: For know of a certain, the Time is at hand, when every Word, Faith and Work shall be tried, that they who believe the Truth, and live in it, may have Rejoicing in themselves, and not in another; when Muggleton's airy Stories (which may perhaps swell and puff up the Minds of silly People) shall vanish; and such as have made his Lies their Refuge, shall be swept away, and their place not to be found among the Living. Therefore mind the Light, the Grace, the Gift of God in yourselves, which leads to Repentance, and all manner of Godly Conversation (a thing Muggleton meddles not with) that by it your Hearts may be sanctified, and settled in the Belief of the Truth, as it is plainly revealed to every particular in Christ Jesus; so shall you obtain a sound Understanding, and possess the Habitations of True Peace, when Muggleton and his obstinate Brats shall Howl in the Lake that burns with Brimstone and Fire forever and evermore.  
William Penn.   

JOHN REEVE AND LODOWICK MUGGLETON, Contradicting Themselves, and One Another.  
IT can be no Wonder unto such as have impartially read thus far, that these men should contradict themselves, and one another; who are filled in their Discourses (or rather Rave) with nothing sober and consonant; but Confusion heaped upon Confusion, to the astonishing of every man that is in earnest about Religion, and has any due Fear and Reverence for God: but because they lay it down, as the Mark only of the True Commissioners of Heaven, in nothing to Jar or Contradict, I am the more induced to add to my own pains and the Readers, in a Comparison of their Contradictions.  
Doth not this Demonstrate those to be the Commissionated Witnessers of the Unerring Spirit, that are endue with a Divine Gift, to write a Volumn as large as the Bible, and as pure a Language as that is, with as much Variety of Matter, without looking in any Writing whatsoever, or HAVING ANY REAL CONTRADICTION IN IT, R. & M. Diu. Look Glass, page 112.  

Contradiction I.  
Therefore it is written, Dust thou art, and unto Dust thou shalt return: When the Lord spoke those words, he did not speak to the Flesh, or outward Form, or Body of the Man; but he spoke to the Inward Spirit or Soul, that understands the words of a Spirit. Look in his Transc. Spiritual Treatise, p. 44. 
Wherefore it may be queried by some, What was that which entered into the Dust, and brought forth Angelical Bodies; was it any thing else, but the Divine Nature of God himself?  
Unto this curious Query, from the true Light of Life I answer.  
That neither the Spirit of Angels, nor any other Creatures were form of the Divine Nature; but the Souls of Adam and Eve only, His Divine L. Glass, pag. 8.   

Animadversion I.  
If that which returns to Dust, cannot be said to return to Dust, unless it first came from Dust; then, if the Soul returns to Dust, it consequently came from Dust, and if from Dust, than was it not form of the Divine Nature, as on the other side is affirmed, and therefore a Contradiction.    

Contradiction II.  
Again, I declare, That when the Elect are Glorified, they are absolutely of the very same Glorious Nature, both in Spirit and Body, as God is. T.S.T. p. 46. Therefore the most Wise and Holy Creator created the Bodies of Angels Spiritual, and their Nature's Rational; and he made the Body of the Man Adam Natural, and his Soul Spiritual: For, if their Spirits and Bodies had been both of the Divine Nature, than it would have been impossible for them to have been capable of any Sin or Evil, no more than the Creator Himself; for what would have been form, but Creators only, instead of Creatures? D.L.G. pag. 9, 10.  

Animadversion II.  
If to be in Body and Spirit Spiritual, be to be Creators, than Gods; and if the Saints are to be of the same Body and Spirit, than they are to be Creators, and consequently Gods; which is absurd: For if the Reason, why Man was not at first made all Spiritual, but the Soul Spiritual, and the Body Natural, was, because he had been a Creator, as they say, which was impossible; then, if Man is to be of the same Body and Spirit that God is, as they affirm; Man is to be a Creator in the next World. Monstrum Horrendum▪    

Contradiction III  
If the very Godhead had not died (that is) If the very Soul of Christ, which the Eternal Father, had not died in the Body, or with the Body, to quiet or satisfy the Cry of the Gild of Sin in Men's Spirits, all men would have perished to Eternity: Thus the Father and the Son was but one unseparable Person in Immortal Glory, from all Eternity; and became, in time, one unseparable Person in Mortality. T.S.T. p. 25, 26. If Angels and Men had been both of God's Divine Nature in their Creation, than instead of their being capable to be changed, into a higher or lower Condition, at the Divine Pleasure of the Creator; would they not rather have been Unchangeable Creators, then Changeable Creatures? D.L.G. p. 9  

Animadversion III.  
If the Reason why Men and Angels are not of the Divine Nature, be, That they are subject to Change, and that if they had been made of it, they would not have been capable of Mutation into lower or higher Degrees, at Divine Pleasure; then because God is of that Divine Nature, it is inconsistent with his Nature to Change, or be Transmuted, as they often speak, from an higher State to a lower: and so, their whole conceit of the Deity's Mortality, is vain, and by themselves Contradicted.    

Contradiction IU.  

Again, Many seeming wise men do imagine the Lord to be a vast Spirit. D.L.G. p. 16.  
Others blasphemously say, that the spirit of Man is God, and that the Body only dies: These say also, God is an Infinite Spirit. T.S.T. p. 44.  
Is not that Infinite Spirit, and its Glorious Properties, but only one Essence, or Godhead Substance? D.L.G. p. 106.  
You may know, that all things are possible and very easy for an Infinite Spirit to bring to pass. D.L.G. p. 114.   

Animadversion IU.  
It can be no Crime, for any to believe, God to be an Infinite or Vast Spirit, as one while they would have it, whilst presently they call the Godhead Substance, an Infinite Spirit, and confess all things to be possible unto an Infinite Spirit. O Gross Contradiction▪    

Contradiction V.  
I say, In the Great and Notable Day of the Lord, by his Decree, they shall every one of them rise out of the Dust together; not with the same Bodies that died, because there was somewhat of God in those Bodies. T.S.T. p. II. So likewise that Infinite Spirit abiding within the glorious Body of Christ, is so unspeakably fiery Glorious, that no Created Spirit of Man nor Angel is able to bear the Indwelling Essence of it. D.L.G. p. 69.  

Animadversion V.  
If something of God dwells in this Life in the Souls and Bodies of Men, than it is not so fiery Glorious, but it may abide in them, and they not be consumed: For God's Nature or Essence is irreconcilable to nothing but Sin; the Righteous shall behold him Face to Face: So that one while, God dwells in Men; another while, if it should be so, Man would be Consumed. Behold the Self-Opposition of these Miserable Witnesses!    

Contradiction VI.  

How can any Rational Wise Man possibly think, that Man, or any other Living Forms, should ever be without a Glorious Creator, to give them their Beings at first. D.L.G. p. 16.  
This was the Creator's very case in the matter of Creation; and who dares speak against it? no Spiritual Wise Man, I am sure, only some Lustful Persons, may dispute against it, though it be contrary to their own Reason, when it is sober. D.L.G. p. 12.  I confess, it is not only contrary to Reason, but far above all Reasons Reach, truly to understand the Mysteries of the Creation. D.L.G. p. 114.  

Animadversion VI.  
If an Appeal be made to rational Men, concerning the Creation by a God, and if it be contrary to sober Reason not to believe so, than it is not far above, nor contrary to all Reason, to understand the Creation; for else, why is it rendered by them so agreeable to Reason, and an Appeal made unto Rational Men concerning it?    

Contradiction VII.  

Again, For your Information, in whose Persons, the Lord by his Holy Spirit Delights to dwell, T.S.T. p. 22.  
Whoever thou art, that boastest of a God, and a Christ, and his Ordinances, and of a Glory to come without thee, in the highest Heavens; if thou shouldst be left to the Pride and Envy of thy Formal spirit, to condemn the Invisible Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Innocent People, because they are contrary to thy Opinion; I say, from the Everlasting Emanuel, That thou art also but a Reprobate, D.L.G. p. 68, 69.  For in him dwelleth all the Fullness of the Godhead bodily, and from his Fullness we all receive, and Grace, for Grace. If Christ, or his Spirit, were within men when they uttered those words, all Faith or Hope, in reference to Eternal Glory was vain, D.L.G. p. 67, 68  

Animadversion VII.  
If Christ delighteth to dwell in the Persons of his People, by his Eternal Spirit, and that he thereby teacheth their Souls what he requires from them, as say they; than it is not in vain to believe or hope, though Christ, or his Spirit, were within, as they also say: nay, they affirm, That the Souls of the Redeemed is the Throne of God, on which he now sits, D.L.G. p. 46. And therefore, though Christ, or his Spirit were in Believers, yet that would not make their Faith and Hope void; Why? Because they stand therein.    

Contradiction VIII.  
Is that Eternal Spirit, in its Heavenly Virtues, any thing else, but Immortal Crowns of bright Burning Glories? Though the Eternal Spirit, be that Invisible God, that by the Power of his Almighty Word hath created all things; and though all Power, Wisdom and Glory proceeds only from an Invisible Eternal Spirit, D.L.G. p. 106. Can this Infinite Spiritual Glory, be sensible of its Divine Excellency, or be a perfect Blessedness, except he hath a distinct Body, suitable to his Eternal Spirit; yet without a Body, Face, or Tongue, or a Majestical Person, like unto Earthly Monarches, he could not possibly have spoken distinct words, nor his Glory have been perfect. D.L.G. p. 106.  

Animadversion VIII.  
If that which is requisite to define or render God, truly such, be singly attributed to the eternal Spirit, without the mention of a Body, then is the Eternal Spirit the Invisible God, as they themselves prove. If the Eternal Spirit, be nothing else then Crowns of Immortal Glory; and that it is the Invisible God, whose Power created all things; and if all Wisdom, Glory and Power proceed ONLY from this Invisible Eternal Spirit, as they say; than not unto a Body, but unto that, who ALONE has all Power, Wisdom and Glory, is the Godhead to be ascribed; but that is unto the Invisible Spirit: And if the Eternal Spirit be thus qualified, how possibly can its Glory be eclipsed for want of a Body, Face or Tongue? Is the Eternal Spirit Crowns of Immortal Imperfect Glory? And how can all Glory alone be given unto the Spirit, whose Glory is imperfect, without a Body? He should have said, From the Spirit and Body Alone proceedeth all Glory, etc. But this Confusion is like the rest.    

Contradiction IX.  
Moreover, You may know, That those Men, called, Independents, Anabaptists, Presbyterians, are the Literal Apostolical Jews. D.L.G. p. 191. Furthermore, Those Anabaptist, Independent, Presbyterian Men, which hold it Lawful to Persecute Men, in their Persons and Estates, upon a Spiritual account; I say from the Eternal Spirit, That they are for the most part, the Offspring of those Bloody-minded Jews that Crucified the Lord of Glory upon the account of Blasphemy, D.L.G. p. 192.  

Animadversion IX.  
That Exception should have been made before: for, if those that are called Independants, Presbyterians and Anabaptists, are Apostolical Jews, and yet such as are for Persecution for Conscience, are of their Race that put Christ to Death, than they are not of the Apostolical, but Mosaical Jews: But how can they make that hold together? The Apostolical Jew, is one, not outward in the Letter, but in the Heart, and in the Spirit; if so, either they are Independents, Presbyterians or Anabaptists; or else those three Opinions are come to be of theirs, since at the Distance they stand, they cannot be under the same Covenant and Circumcision. But to be short, By their declaring them (whilst not their Followers) Apostolical Jews, we may conclude, That Reeve and Muggleton count themselves none of them, but Men of another Dispensation; and therefore not of the Circumcision in Heart, which is not according to the Letter, but the Spirit; beyond which Dispensation, all other Pretensions are Imaginations and vain Exaltations.    

Contradiction X.  

It is not thy Natural or Allegorical Whimsies, that can blind the Elect, nor pacify the Judge of Life and Death within thee, D.L.G. p. 168.  
And now I desire no other Witness, to bear Record in the Consciences of Men to this Epistle, whether it be Truth, or no, but the Everlasting Jehovah, or Eternal Spiritual Jesus himself, D.L.G. p. 208.  Again, If every man have the Spirit of Christ living in his Conscience, as many men vainly imagine; What then is become of the Spiritual Body of that Jesus that ascended into the Throne of his Glory, in the visible sight of Men and Angels? D. L.G p. 68  

Animadversion X.  
If the Judge of Life and Death be in man, than Christ unto whom all Judgement is committed, is in man, to justify or condemn him; therefore Christ, or his Spirit, or both are in man, and consequently, it is no Impediment to, nor Denial of Christ's Ascension with a Glorified Body: Neither is it vain to believe, that the Spirit of Christ lives in the Consciences of Men. Observe their Folly, The Judge of Life and Death is within thee; again, It is vain to Imagine, that the Spirit of Christ lives in men's Consciences: Thus they say and unsay almost in a Breath. But above all, That the Everlasting Jehovah, and Eternal Spiritual Jesus, should be in men's Consciences the true Witness, and yet not be in Men: Who can understand this strange Riddle?    

Contradiction XI.  
But you may say, Did God the third day arise from the Dead, by his own Power, or by the Power of his Deputy, Elias? To which I answer, He by his own Decree, and Spiritual Compact, with Elias, and by that Spirit of Faith, in his Innocent Body, the which Faith died in his pure Body, and quickened immediately, and brought forth that Natural Innocent Body, out of the Grave, a pure Spiritual Body, T.S.T. p. 32, 33. Therefore whosoever saith, that any other Body ascended into Glory, but that very same Body of Flesh and Bones that suffered Death upon the Cross, he is an Antichrist, and in utter Spiritual Darkness, D.L.G. p. 15.  

Animadversion XI.  
If the Body died a Natural Body, and was brought forth, a Spiritual Body; then, unless that Spiritual Body laid down itself, and resumed its Natural Body, as at the first, it could not be the very same Body, of Flesh Blood and Bone, that Died, which Ascended; but it must have been a Spiritual Body. In short, If Natural and Spiritual be not all one, as say they elsewhere in these Contradictions; then was it no more the same Body, then Natural is Spiritual, and Mortal Immortal, upon their own Principles; and consequently, Reeve and Muggleton are the Antichrists, and in utter Darkness.  
As for the threefold Answer he gives to the Objection, it is wretchedly Blaphemous; 1. God's Decree; 2. His Compact with Elias; 3. His own Spirit of Faith. To the first I reply, What did the Decree avail, when the Power was in another, and when he that made it, was dead? To the second I return, That God's rising lay on the side of Elias' Honesty, in performing Obligation, & keeping Covenant, and not in any other thing. 3. As to that Spirit of Faith, they confess it died, if so, how did the Faith raise him? Besides, In whom should God have Faith? in Himself? He was dead; In Elias? He could not exercise it, when in the Grave. Again, He that believes, enjoys not fully; and has Confidence in one Greater than Himself; but God wants nothing, and can have no Object for Faith, and therefore no Faith. O, the Unparalleled Sottish ●olly, and Raving Conceits of these men!    

Contradiction XII.  
So likewise, I positively affirm, against all Gainsayers under Heaven, That I John Reeve am the Last Commissionated Prophet, that ever shall declare Divine Secrets, according to the Foundation of Truth, until the Lord Jesus Christ appear on his Throne of Glory, D.L.G. p. 119. A True Interpretation of all the chief Texts, and Mysterious Sayings, and Visions opened, of the whole Book of the Revelation of St. John; wherein is unfolded, and plainly declared, those Wonderful Deep Mysteries, and Visions interpreted, concerning the True God, the Alpha and Omega; with variety of other Heavenly Secrets, which hath never been opened, nor revealed to any man, since the Creation of the World to this Day, until now: By Lodowick Muggleton, etc.  

Animadversion XII.  
Who shall we believe of these two? they both pretend the same Commission, and yet Contradict: but how can any Credit be given thereunto? when (though Reeve says, he was awake, at the receiving of it, yet presently after tells us, that) he knew not, whether he was an Immortal God, or a Mortal Man: what ground is there for any Belief, of what Reeve himself was so far from a clear knowledge of, as that he was not more unable to resolve, whether he was an Immortal God, or a Mortal Man, then to know the Truth of all his Revelation? O, the willingness in men to be Blind! Certainly if the Devil himself should, as a Devil, seek Proselytes, some would follow him.    

A few Additional Observations upon some Passages, of John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton, in the before-cited Books.  
THe Spirit of Faith and Love, infinitely in the Glorious Person of God, overfloweth as a Fountain, continually with Revelation of New Heavenly Wisdom, from whence flows New Joys, and Glory to Himself, T.S.T. p. 46.  
Observation, That unto which any thing may be added, cannot be said to be Perfect, and consequently cannot be God; but be unto whom Wisdom is renewed, wanted that Wisdom before he had it, and consequently was not Perfect, and therefore not the True God; unto whom there is no Increase of Wisdom, Power or Strength; but was, and is, and will be forever the same Unalterable Being; Infinite in Wisdom, Power, and all other Divine Excellencies, without any Diminution or Addition.  
The Reason why Men's Bodies in Death, or after Death, do Rotsie or Stink, in the Grave, and come to Dust, is, because there was Sin in their Bodies; whilst they Lived; but on the contrary, if Men had no Sin in their Natures or Bodies, they might Live and Dye, and Naturally Rise again, by their own Power, in their own Time, T.S.T. p. 33.  
Observe. O the Exceeding Folly and Blindness of this Sottish Man! Why should Sin only cause the Body to Rot, Stink and go to Dust? Does not the Scripture, and Reeve himself, in his T.S.T. pag 44. give another Reason, namely, That what came from Dust, is that which must go to Dust? besides, If the Flesh of Beasts, is capable of Dying, Rotting, and going to Dust, who never Sinned, why should not man have Died, and gone to Dust, though he had never Sinned? For though there is a vast Difference betwixt Men and Beasts, in reference to their Souls, and Bodies too, so far as may concern the distinction of Kind's; yet as to their being liable to one and the same External Casualties, and Sufferings, by Hunger, Thirst, Sickness, Death and Corruption, no man can rationally contradict: But above all, this deserves our Observation, That since Reeve is Dead, Rotten, and gone to Dust, he was not cleansed from Sin, as he is said to have pretended; but by Reason of his Wickedness, Death holds him in the Grave, and consequently, he cannot have been God's Last Witness, whose Witnesses he hath always cleansed from that, against which they were to Witness. And it is further evident, That Sin is not the cause of Men's Bodies crumbling into Dust. from Reeve's own words, who saith, The Most High God, by his Unsearchable Wisdom, hath Decreed, that all Light of Life in man, shall become Dead, Dust, or Earth, D.L.G. p. 17. So that God's Decree, and not Man's Sin, in his own sense, must be the Reason of such Conversion and Corruption.  
Therefore you may know, that the LordsLords Reasoning with the Jews, was only by his Prophets, which were Rational Men, like unto themselves, which were sent to Convince those Stonyhearted Jews, by declaring the Glorious God, and his Spiritual Truth unto them, in the Balance of their Own Reason, D.L.G. p. 117.  
Observe. It is remarkable, with what unusual Nonsense, and Contradiction he proceeds, in his whole Affair, since herein he Contradicts one of his main Foundation Principles; namely, That God hath not in his Glorious Spirit, one Motion of Reason inherent, nor yet the Elect of God, as may be seen, D.L.G. p. 18. & T.S.T. p. 17. Whereas its manifest unto all men, who would not deny themselves the use of their Understandings, That none can properly reason of any Subject, unto whom Reason cannot be, or is not inherent; so that if God, did both Reason with the Jews, and his Prophets were Rational Men, then may we safely conclude, That Reason is Inherent, to God, and his Elect Children; and that Pure Reason, is not inconsistent with, or distinct from the Nature of Love and Faith; not only, because it is most Rational to believe in, and love God most uprightly; but because John Reeve himself (that great Enemy to all sober Reason) makes it the Balance, in which the Prophet's Declaration of the Glorious God, and his Spiritual Truth, should be weighed.  
Again, I Declare from the Holy Spirit, The Lord spoke by Voice of words, to his Three Commissioners, which he hath sent unto the World; yea, I know God the Father spoke unto Moses, as a Man speaks unto his Friend; and I know, that God spoke unto the Apostles, in the Person of his Son, because I know the Lord God spoke unto me in the Person of the Holy Ghost; only the two former Witnesses, saw the Person of God, in Part Visibly, but I saw the Glory of his Person Invisibly, or within me; because I am the Messenger of the Holy Invisible Spirit, T.S.T. p. 35.  
Observe. Upon all this I make my following Observations, as regular as this Irregular Confused Matter, will permit me.  
First, Then I would fain know, how he came to this Mighty Confidence in God's speaking to Moses; for it is in no part of his Commission, and Muggleton says, Moses set the Cart before the Horse; and they both of them despise the Scripture, in comparison of their own Writings.  
Secondly, Though God might 〈…〉 the Person of his Son to his Apostles, yet I utterly deny; upon Reeves Principles, that the Lord Jesus could speak unto him, in the Person of the Holy Ghost, because this would necessarily imply a Trinity of Persons, 〈…〉 by him elsewhere absolutely denied, therefore the Lord Jesus could speak to him in no other Person, than his own, if at all:  
Thirdly, If God spoke to J. Reeve by Voice of Words, because he affirms him to have so spoken to Moses, and the Apostles; then may we plainly infer, that God should as well have shown his Person unto J.R. as he believes him to have done to Moses, and the Apostles, since if he did not decline to utter words to the Carnal Ear, in this third Commission, as is pretended, any more than in the two former, 〈◊〉 is no Reason in the World, why John Reeve's Carnal Eye should not have had equal Privilege with the former Commissioners; in Visibly be holding God's Person also: but since he makes God so differ to in the one, we ought the less to believe him in the other; that is, If his Carnal Eye could never see Him, because of the Spirituality of the Commission, his Carnal-Ear could never hear him, for one and the same Reason; therefore all a Counterfeit.  
Fourthly, Suppose he had seen the Glory of God's Person within him, yet that had been impossible, unless God's Person had been within him, since his Person and his Glory are inseparable, as he largely affirms, D.L.G. p. 106. and if so, how manifest a Contradiction is it to several places of his Writings? particularly this, The Spirit or Person of Christ, may fitly be compared unto the Face of the Natural Sun; you may know, that the Natural Spirit of the Sun, is so ●●●●●dingly Fiery Glorious, that no created thing, that hath Natural 〈◊〉, is capable of its indwelling Brightness, but it's own Body or Face only: If this be true, than Reeve could not behold the Glory of God's Person within him.  
Fifthly, But let us suppose, that by Reeve's Principles, the Glory of God's Person, may be beheld, yet it is highly against them, that it should be beheld within; for if the Body and Soul of man, are one indivisible and inseparable Substance, as he says they are, then can there be no Invisible Eye, distinct from that which is Carnal, to behold an Invisible Glory; and if so, then could Reeve never see God's Glory Invisibly within him; and consequently, he had us Commission: but out of his own Mouth he is proved a Liar & Impostor. I shall conclude the whole with Queries to L. Muggleton, and his Companions.  

Ten Queries Propounded.  
IF J. Reeve and L. Muggleton were the two True Last Witnesses, mentioned in the Revelation; how comes it, that they bear not the same Testimony, when risen, that was born before the slaying of the Witnesses; since they were not other Witnesses, that rise, than those that were slain; and consequently, the Testimonies no more to vary then the Witnesses themselves?  
II. If they be the same Witnesses, should they not have Prophesied, 1260. Days, that is Years; and have been slain Three Days and an Half in spiritual Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified, and then have risen from the Dead?  
III. How did they Prophesy so many years? How were they (Visible Witnesses) slain in spiritual Sodom & Egypt, where Christ was crucified? Does not this show the Witnesses to be Spiritual and Mystical, like the Place in which they were slain (the Hearts of men) and their Death to be the same? And were they ever such Witnesses, so slain, so long slain, and in that Place, as in the Revelation expressed?  
IV. If they be the same Witnesses, were they not to Live, and Dye, and Rise together? Has not Reeve been Dead many Years?  
V. If they were the True Witnesses, when did they shut the Heavens, that it Reigned not, turn Water into Blood, and Smite the Earth with Plagues?  
VI If John Reeve was the Moses, or Principal Understanding; and L. Muggleton the Aaron, or Mouth only, as says Reeve; then whether Muggleton be anything, but an Empty Month, now his Understanding Moses is gone?  
VII. How can Muggleton, upon Reeve ' s Principle, be a Witness or Commissioner for God, who confesseth, He never had any Commission by Voice of Words, but from Reeve only, whom he trusted▪ though Reeve himself affirms, That there is no True Commission, but by Voice of Words to the Party sent?  
VIII. Whether Men's Trusting upon Muggleton (who relied upon Reeve) without any Internal Convictions from the Eternal Spirit, be not as Sandy a Foundation at the Darkest Popery?  
IX. Whether, there ever was a Pope on Earth, that usurped, or exercised a more Arbitrary Enslaving Power over men's Consciences, in Imposing his Faith upon Penalty of Immediate Curse, and Eternal Damnation, then J. Reeve and L. Muggleton have done, and the last remains to do; by affirming, That whom he Curseth, God Himself cannot Bless; and whom he Blesseth, God Himself cannot Curse: though Reeve and Muggleton have Cursed, and Blessed, and Cursed the same Person, and that more than once?  
X. And Lastly, Whether upon the whole, these men, in their Commissions, Doctrines, Jurisdictions, Sentences, Lives and Conversations, are like unto the Last Witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ; or thoseVngodly, Proud Boasters; Wandering Stars; Clouds without Rain; Raging Waves, Exalted above all that is called God; Perverters of the Truth, whose Belly is their God, who Glory in their Shame, whose End is Destruction and Perdition?    

Postcript.  
SInce the finishing of the foregoing Paper, it came into my Mind, that if I affixed a Postscript, touching the Commission itself, that might remove all Credit in the same, the rest would die of itself. 'Tis true, this might have been better placed in the Front, as the best Praeludium to the Discourse itself; but it failing of that place, I was rather willing it should go for a Postscript, then lose that Service, I am not without Hope, it may perform in Publication of it.  
A Brief Examen of REEVE his Commission.  
Saith he, I Declare from the Lord Jesus, That no man can understand any thing of those things that are Invisible to our Natural Eyes, but by the Spirit of Revelation; therefore it is written, That Faith is the Substance of Things Hoped for, and the Evidence of Things not seen: in his Transcendent Spiritual Treatise, as he calls it, pag. 16.  
If these things are Invisible to Natural Eyes, then are they Inaudible by Natural Ears, both being Capable and Natural alike: And if no man ever can or could See them, no man could or can ever Hear them; and if no man could or can, than Reeve never did: And if he never heard with his Carnal Ears, for He implies so much that denies the Power of seeing such Spiritual and Invisible Things, to natural Eyes, than was his Commission a Counterfeit: For he affirmed, That the 3d, 4th, & 5th of February, 1651. He Herd God resident above the Stars, speaking to Him then a Bed on Earth, by a Voice of Words, giving to him his Pretended Commission, T.S.T. pag. 5.  
In short, Four Things I recommend to the Serious Consideration of all Sober-minded People, with a Story to conclude.  
1. That a Commission should be given by a Voice of Words, from the farthest Heaven to any man upon Earth, and neither any other Hear the same, no, not so much as Muggleton Himself; nor yet the Heavens nor Earth to re●●ive any impression or Alteration, is an Incredible Thing with all Persons that are in their Wits.  
2. Not only in this doth his Commission strangely vary from that of Moses, but in the Consequence thereof more dangerously, in as much as no man living is assured of the Verity of this Commission, from any Convincing Testimony, either from without, or within him; a Credulity God himself never exacted, or expected from his Creatures: for, the Reason of God's Complaint against a Rebellious People, never was for not believing without Convictions; but because the Creation without, and his Good Spirit within, had so plentifully proved a God, and that Fear, Reverence and Obedience which were due to Him, and yet that they were not delighted to retain the Most High in their Knowledge.  
3. That this should beget an utter and perpetual Abhorrence in us of all such Impostures; do but call to mind, what an Overthrow this gives to all those Famous Prophecies, of God's Tabernacling in His People, His Teaching them, pouring out His Spirit upon them, and of their beholding Him Face to Face; since in this one Conceit, all that believe it, are brought under the Verge of these men's Imaginations, without the least Convincing Ground for any such Belief, unless the Fear of their Insolent Curse.  
4. To Conclude, if his Commission was after a Visible External Manner, like unto Moses, as he affirms, He must needs have Visible and External Miracles to confirm such a Visible and External Commission: For, to deny Visible Miracles to a Visible Commission, is to deny that Commission; and to pretend Invisible Ones, is Improper, Unnatural and Untrue.  
My Story is this, and not Unknown to some of the Creditors of this Counterfeit Commission.  
A Considerable Commander of the English Army, in Ireland; and but too stiff against Lay Preachers (esteemed Presbyterian) hearing in his Bed a still Voice, Requiring Him to go Preach the Gospel to the Indians, was so much Amazed, that he questioned if he were not Asleep, as Reeve's did, whether He was an Immortal God, or a Mortal Man; and finding himself Awake (though he could rather have wished it but a Dream) it greatly Terrified him; to leave his Family, Command and Station, to go Preach the Gospel (who scarcely ever adventured to Preach (whatever he did to Pray) in all his Life) was Matter of much Disquiet to him; till in the end, he rather inclined to incur the Curse that followed his Disobedience, then to leave his wont Course of Life, and take up one so difficult to him, & in which he was so Unable, as well as Unwilling to acquit himself: But it ended not so; for I think, the next Night, or Morning, or in a little time after, the same Voice came to him, with the same Command, which increased his Perplexity; but still, as I was informed, he continued averse from such a Voyage and Enterprise, till the Third Time of his being thus Alarumed, and then, as the Story went, he gave (for aught I know, as Freely) up to Preach to the Indians, as Reeve did to go to Muggleton, and J. Robbins, etc. and I am strongly of the mind, the Authority may have been much alike, for it proved in the End, to be the Abuse of some of his Companions, in a way of unjustifiable Waggery and Merriment, through a Trunk, or some such hollow thing, placed with its Mouth or Muzzle near the Commander's Bed. What shall we say then of Reeve's Voice of words? A Man swelled with Conceits, more ready and deserving to have been Abused, than the Persons concerned in this Story: and concerning whom Muggleton told me, He thought Him Hot-brained, and Distempered in his Head, and that he had told him so; a thing not hardly to be credited by such as read his Folly. Certainly God never gave a Commission yet, in that Way wherein man's Wit or Malice could Equal it. And I would know, what one Extraordinary Circumstance attended the giving of this Commission to Reeve, that may Groundedly Engage any to the Belief of it? But indeed, it was notably done of Him, to pretend an Authority of which he was the sole Judge, and Witness; and a Power to Curse all such as Refused his Testimony, without his rendering a Reason for the Hope that was in him. Never did the Devil more Befool himself, nor any of Mankind, then in his Divulging, and their Believing of these Sottish Blasphemies.  
THE END.    

Reader,  
I Am sorry I have so often occasion to entreat thy Kindness, not to impute the Errors of the Press to the Author of the Discourse, as well as to desire thy Pains and Patience to correct them: but when thou seest how many greater are refuted by it, I hope it will not trouble thee to have answered my Request.  
Page, Line, Errors, Corrected. 4 18 have hath  29 Lucifian Lucifrian 5 7 infability infallibility  22 Phantisms Phantasms 8 31 a the 11 16 disposure discomposure 16 11 — T.S.T. P. 42.  25 the their 18 13 — T.S.T. p. 43, 44. 22 22 corporical corporial 23 2 it her  16 rise rife  23 — T.S.T. p. 23, to 30. 25 12 — Mat. 11.25. 26 2 God Jesus 31 3 opened openly  17 — D.L.G. p. 72, 73, 74.  24 be be 33 21 that blot it out 35 5 chap. 17. and chap. 17. read, and 38 12 fathomed fashioned 39 7 some no 42 2 to blot it out 43 17 endue endued 46 3 which the which is the 57 27 differ to to differ.