A Divine Looking-Glass was written and first published in 1656 by John Reeve, an English prophet.
He received his commission from God "to the hearing of the ear as a man speaks to his friend" (23.22) in February 1651.
This commission identifies Reeve and his cousin, Lodowicke Muggleton, as the Two Witnesses referred to in the Book of Revelation at chapter 11 verse 3.
Instead, Reeve seeks to tackle what he regards as the burning issues of the day, at a time when individuals felt great anxiety as to their personal salvation[4] and many conflicting scriptural interpretations jostled for attention.
In chapter 1 verse 4 he identifies four questions by which his book will seek to satisfy the curious.
All other titles bestowed upon the deity are mere name-calling and refer to the divine qualities as perceived by humans.
Creation is the word of God breathing life into the previously lifeless dust and water (2.8).
Since Reeve is loath to say evil derives from God's creation he sees it as a primal force lying in wait amongst the lifeless dust - a surprising prototype for the Cthulhu mythos.
Perhaps he wishes to avoid speculation like Laurence Clarkson's "Land of Nod" or the Jewish Lilith.
The angels, although created perfectly pure, require continual infusions of divine inspiration in order not to degenerate (4.26).
Reeve does not follow the line that evil may be merely the misapplication of things intended for good.
Humans use reason, at least after the fall of Adam and Eve, because they see in it a technique, a trick, to obtain the satisfactions they feel they lack.
Law is to be found in faith alone because the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life (5.47).
Reeve displays little affinity for the mysticism which seeks oneness with an infinite majesty whilst still in this life.
The serpent is the reprobate angel who "was thrown down into this perishing world, where his desired kingdom of god-like government was prepared for him" (5.19).
Eve was defiled by the serpent entering into her private parts there to make an end of himself by mixing with her womanliness and to launch a new career of evil in this world.
"You cannot be so weak," says Reeve, "as to think that the law of eternal life and death depended on the eating of an apple from a natural tree."
Thus, the tale of the apple is a mere euphemism as ancient Jewish writers were pained by overt reference to the genitals.
John Reeve writes at a time when an interpretive understanding of the world as an order of Ideas and archetypes was giving way to something more analytical.
Mircea Eliade says "for the first time, the prophets placed a value on history, succeeded in transcending the traditional vision of the cycle (the conception that all things will be repeated forever) and discovered a one-way time.".
The day of his appearing shall be like unto that of Noah (flood) and Lot (hail of fire and brimstone) (47.1).
The apocalypse to come is when the awful truth to the phrase 'make the heart of this people fat' will have sunk in.
Following St Paul, Reeve says darkly, "who shall dare open his mouth on that day to say, Why hast thou made me thus?"
It is also based upon a traditional view of matter in which earth, water, fire and air are the four elements and all substances interact according to how their 'natures' either repel each other in conflict or attract each other harmoniously.
The other is the third heaven cited in scripture which is "the realm of the angels and glorified bodies of Moses and Elijah" (8.4).
"harken no more unto vain astronomers or star-gazers, concerning the bulk of the sun, moon and stars, for I positively affirm from the God that made them that the compass of their bodies are not much bigger than they appear to our natural sight" (7.33).
What Reeve is describing is a sort of parallel universe (avoiding the pitfalls of reason) and a deeply psychedelic one.