Truth's triumph: or, A witness to the two witnesses from that unfolded parable of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the High and mighty God: Matthew, chap. 13, verse 30 to 42 is a 1676 theological book by Thomas Tomkinson, written as a defence and explanation of the Muggletonian faith. It addresses common misconceptions about the sect and expands on its core beliefs. Historian William M. Lamont has described the work as Tomkinson's "own greatest contribution" to Muggletonian theology.
Introduction Tomkinson says he will discuss the fundamentals of the faith under eight heads.
The True God The Two Seeds The Right Devil Predestination The nature of the law The mortality of the soul The Devil's torments The saints' joys in Heaven The reader is warned that "The Scriptures calls things that are not, as though they were; and sets that first which should be last, and last which should be first; to the end that Reason should never find out the meaning of God in the Scriptures." Throughout his book, Tomkinson relates his text back to Matthew 13: 37 - 42, wherein Jesus explains the Parable of the Tares.
The True God Tomkinson addresses a common atheist objection. He agrees it is common sense that everything that has a beginning is likely to have an end, too. But, he objects, it does not follow from this that humans are merely transient beings. Adam was formed from earth and water, 'elements' which the Muggletonians say have existed for all eternity. Thus, humans will be capable of being resurrected as bodies in a glorified condition at world's end. Then, each will have a full understanding of paradise which can only be partially glimpsed now as inner peace and bliss. Similarly, God could not be an infinite spirit that would have "infused itself into the whole creation" because any meaningful distinction between Creator and creature would then be lost. Tomkinson tries to explain why his notion of a 'spiritual body' does not conjure up a phantom. "The form of the uncreated Majesty, before he became flesh did not consist of any elementary matter, but it was a bright shiny glory of uncompounded purities of so unutterable a nature in virtue, as that it was swifter than thought, clearer than crystal, sweeter than roses, purer than the purest gold, yea, and more infinitely glorious than the sun." The 'swifter than thought' quote is to contradict Quakers who ridiculed the notion of an embodied God lumbering around the universe trying to keep up with events. So, comparing man and God, it was "not the visibility of their persons that differed, but the glory of them only." Tomkinson advances two reasons why this must be so. Firstly, he argued that God created man in his own image and that righteousness and holiness cannot act unless they are embodied in an agent. Secondly, many of the virtues of God relate to states of being and that would be meaningless without a body to be in. "Now the learned professors resist this doctrine," Tomkinson advises us. Yet this is what mystery means. Those wedded to reason will always look to the bare letter of the law and to their own proud reasonings. Whereas those born of the seed of the woman "can trace the footsteps of the prophets till they come to the paths of God and so find him out and know him." Tomkinson thinks the impure motives behind the idea of God being pure spirit are only too obvious. He says it was originally a pagan form of self-flattery to imagine there was a little bit of God in us all. He traces its history from Nimrod, through Pythagoras to Pliny the Elder, and tells how they loved to commission statues of themselves to impress others. Scriptural literalists (from Augustine to Richard Baxter) fall into a similar error of human imaginings. Yet there was always an underground stream of the truth. He cites the followers of Sabilis which we would probably label Sabellianism. Also the Athrapamorphets. These truth-sayers were persecuted by the dominant culture due to the take-over of the church by the state and because the Apostles "preached the faith in a personal God, but in that, they clothed it within the appellation of several titles, it appeared more intricate and mysterious" than it really was. Tomkinson summarises his reasons why an embodied God is the "true lip of heaven".
that God created man in his own likeness that God talked with Adam and Abraham and walked with Enoch that God wrestled with Jacob that God covered the eyes of Moses that the words of the law were scribed by God's own finger. Wrong doctrine tends to result in evil fruit and Tomkinson expresses this with a remarkable extended metaphor. "Like as to a man that goeth into his garden more for the love of the colour and beauty of an herb or flower than for its virtue or goodness; being thereunto enslaved either from his own fancy or because of an ancient praise to that colour, is not to be reputed wise." In other words, received opinion and tradition do not make for truth. The reason is solely a strategy for marshalling the facts to fit a settled opinion of one's own. In this, God's law counts for nothing but what it will fetch in the course of debate. He gives an example of such atheism as Dr More's Natural Cabala Dr More is reported as giving a remarkably Muggletonian description of God's features and then saying that scripture only uses this language so that "vulgar opinion" can understand it. And learned people misunderstand it, warns Tomkinson. "Behold your Redeemer who came skipping upon the mountains, bringing glad tidings of peace." Tomkinson says this role of God appearing as redeemer is foretold as of old. He sets out Lactantius' "ancient prophecies of Christ from one of the Sibels." These stress that Christ will make no effort to defend himself against the wrath of the rulers or to justify himself before them. Tomkinson discusses the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Book of Enoch at great length including Enoch's special role as protector of the Angels. He makes the point that because men lived so long in those days (Enoch being 380 years old by the time old Adam died) they did not write things down because their memories were a more durable medium than manuscript! Tomkinson sets out seven arguments to confound the seven anti-churches mentioned in Revelation, all of whom are Trinitarian.
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