The answer to William Penn Quaker, his book, entituled, The new witnesses proved old hereticks Wherein he is proved to be an ignotant [sic] spater-brain'd Quaker, who knows no more what the true God is, nor his secret decrees, then one of his coach-horses doth, nor so much; for the oxe knoweth his owner, and the ass his masters scrip, but Penn doth not know his maker, as is manifest by the Scriptures, which may inform the reader, if he mind the interpretation of Scripture in the discourse following. I. That God was in the forme, image and likeness of mans bodily shape, as well as his soul from eternity. ... VIII. What is meant by the armour of God, the wilderness, and the wilde beasts I fought with in the wilderness. / By Lodowick Muggleton.

CHAP. V. (Book 5)

REader, Suffer me a little to describe the Quakers Imaginary God without a body. Penn saith, God is an infinite, great, vast Spirit, without any form or shape at all, and holdeth the Waters in the hollow of his Hand. Now the hollow of this imaginary infinite Spirits hand, is that hollow earth that holdeth the great Seas, and waters of the Earth, this is the hand of an infinite Spirit that hath no body. 2. The Firmament of Hea∣ven, the substance of it is the Span of an infinite Spirit without a body. 3. That this infinite Spirit without a body can compre∣hend

and understand, and hold all the dust of the Earth in its head, yet a Spirit without a body. 4. That this infinite vast Spirit without a body, can weigh the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in ballance, without a head of understanding; here the Quakers God is described, he holdeth the Waters in the hollow of his hand, yet hath no hand. 2. He spanneth out the Heaven with his span, yet hath no Fingers nor Thumb. 3. He comprehends the dust of the Earth in a measure, yet hath no head. 4. He weigheth the Hills and Mountains in a ballance, yet hath no Arms, nor body: This is the Quakers God which they do worship, and this is the Quakers Faith, else Penn would never have brought this Scripture, to prove that God is not in the form of a man, nor no form at all.

Yet the Scriptures speaks of God having all parts as a man hath, as here in this place the Prophet speaks of Gods hand, and of his comprehension, which must be in the head; Moses tells us of Gods face, thou canst not see my face and live, and Heaven is Gods Throne, and Earth is his Foot-stool, and that God hath a Nose and Breast, and Thighs and Arms and Fingers and right hand and left hand, the Sheep shall stand on his right hand, and the Goats on his left hand; these expressions the Scriptures are full off: Therefore it is for certain that Moses and the Prophets did belive and know, that God was in the form of man, when he said let us make man in our own Image; else the Prophets would never have talked so oft of Gods Face, Arms, Hands, Brest, Nose that smelled a sweet savour, Legs and Feet, if God had been no form at all, as Penn doth vainly i∣magine, and if it be granted that God was in any form at all, when he created this World; Is it not the safest and the best Faith, to believe he was in the form of a man, seeing he saith, he made man in his own Image and likeness, else those words of Moses cannot be true; for an infinite Spirit without body and shape, could never have made man in his own Image and likeness; except he had made man an infinite formless Spirit, without a body as himself is; as Penn doth affirm that God hath no form nor body, nor likeness at all but an infinite vast Spirit, that fills all places at one time, which in effect is an infinite nothing: For if God had no body nor form of his own at all, then it will follow, that he must be an infinite no∣thing at all; or else he must be the Earth, the Waters, the Air,

the Firmament, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the life of every Creature, both Rational and Sensitive and Vegitive Creatures, even the all in all; to conclude, there is nothing in Heaven a∣bove, nor in the Earth beneath, nor in the Waters, but God himsel••; for if God cannot be confined to no particular place, as Penn saith, he must partake of the miseries here on earth, as well as the joys of Heaven: why, because he cannot be con∣fin'd to Heaven which is the Throne of Glory, but must be here on Earth his Foot-stool at the same time; so that no place is empty of Gods presence, no not so much as Hell, but God is present there at one and the same time. This is Penn the Qua∣kers God, as doth appear by the inference he draweth from these Scriptures afore-mentioned.

For the Readers sake, I shall interpret those words of Scrip∣ture, how God may be said to have measured the waters in the hollow of his hand: The meaning is, That in the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, Gen. 1.2. For the waters were over the face of the earth, and did cover the earth; therefore it is said, That darkness was upon the face of the deep waters; and Gods Spirit, that is the Word of his Power, moved upon the face of the waters; and by the voyce of God entring and moving upon the face of the waters, he created Light out of the substance of Water. For the Reader must mind, that by the Word of God the Worlds were framed. The Word of God may be called the Spirit of God, in that no word can be spoken but it must proceed from a spirit, and a spirit cannot utter words but from a body; so that there must be body, spirit and word, and all but one Being; neither can any one of these three be destroyed, but all three are destroyed; and if one of these three do live for ever, all three do live for ever, because they all three are but one entire distinct being of it self. But let that pass.

So that God, by his Word, moving upon the face of the Wa∣ters, he created by his Word out of that substance of water, the Sun, Moon, and Stars; by his Word he made them bodies of light: But before he made the Sun, Moon, and Stars; he created by his Word, out of those Waters, that was over the face of the deep, the Firmament of Heaven, it was made by the Word of God, out of that substance of water that was upon the face of the deep in the beginning; and this Firmament is

called Heaven, which God made of that water that was over the face of the deep; and this Firmament which God created out of the substance of water, it doth compose the Globe of the earth round, so that the earth stands in the midst of the Fir∣mament; so that the Firmament is underneath the earth, as it is above the earth, and by the Word of the Lord the earth stand••th in the midst of the Firmament upon nothing but by the W••••d of Gods Power ••hen he created it; only this observe, though God maketh the earth to stand upon nothing, yet he did not make the earth it self, the substance of earth of nothing, but the substance of earth was an Eternal Chaos; for God never made any thing of nothing, though he maketh a substance to stand or hang upon nothing: And those bodies of light, the Sun, Moon, and Stars, God set them in the Firmament of Heaven, to give light upon the earth; And after God had made the Fir∣mament of Heaven, and those lights aforesaid out of the sub∣stance of that waters that was over the face of the earth, then God said to the residue of the waters, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land ap∣pear: and it was so. (As in verse 9.) This one place where the waters were gathered together was the hollow of Gods hand, because God by his Word caused the waters to gather together into that place he appointed them, even to that one place they now remain: And this was Gods handy work, and in this sence God may be said to have measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, because he prepared a place in the earth by his Word speaking, to hold the waters in a hollow place in the earth, both deep and large, to hold these deep waters in this deep place in the earth, and these waters are called Sea; so that the deep, that holdeth the waters of the Sea, may be called the hollow of Gods hand; and that he doth hold the waters of the Sea in the hollow of his hand, because he keepeth the waters of the Sea in i••s bounds, in that he hath set a Governour the Moon, over the Waters, to ebb and flow, and keep them within bounds.