TO Trace this impious Impostor from his Original, who ever takes pains but to go into Cloak Lane, will there be informed by the Generallity of the Inhabitants, that this Lodowick Muggleton was at first no other than a factious Journiman-Taylor, whose Ex­travagances being too large for the compitent allowance of about 10 s. p. week, began in the year 1651. to consult with one John Reeve (a brother both in Trade and necessi­ty) how they might betake them to some more profitable imployment, whose larded Incomes might more kindly in­dulge their Lukury; to this end they made some small in­spection and progress into all sorts of Heresies (as he has since confest to J. C. and others) but finding those Chairs already taken up, they resolv'd to be beholding to no body, but to contract such a competent measure of im­pudence and impiety, as should inable them to stifle all the oppositions of Religion, or Conscience, and set up for themselves. And that which gave them no small incou­ragement hereunto was the wonderful success and almost infinite Riches, two precedent impostors John Roubins and Joh. Tauny, had lately gained by the same damnable practice. The prosperity of these two rendred the private conditions of Reeve and Muggleton more unsufferable; so that the former being the more impudent, and having with some curiosity perused the Revelations of St. John, and found to his extreem sorrow that the Holy Ghost had never so much as dreampt of him throughout the [Page 2] whole Book, he resolves by the help of a feigned Enthu­siasm or pretended Revelation, to force in the minds of Listening Ignorants, whose Gaping curiosity lay always open for the reception of any Novelty, a certain belief of a strange inspiration, and Commission then delivered unto him, whereby (forsooth) he not only pretends a Soveraignty o­ver Mankind but assumes, a power to pass (upon the least contradiction of his wicked principles) a sentence of e­verlasting Condemnation, even upon the blessed Angels themselves: as is affirm'd he hath authority to do, in a book of Muggletons, called the Quakers Neck broke, pag. 20.

To exact this necessary Credulity from his Gazing ad­mirers, he calls one Evening of Muggleton to go with him to the Tavern, from whence after they had Gorged their Guts with an excess of Wine, and Victuals, they resolv­ed forthwith to go Chew the Cud both of their discourse and Viends upon their Pillows, whereon Reeve had not long laid his shallow skul, but whether caus'd by fumes a rising from an undisgested Supper, or the important pres­sures of his designed greatness, I know not, but up he gets, runs to Muggleton, tells him as Muggleton does us in his non­sensical interpretation of the 11. chap. of the Revelation, pag. 158. That God spake in the night unto him, and told him that he had given him more understanding in the Scriptures than all other men in the World. That he had put the two edged sword in his mouth, and in the next words following, and I have Chosen thee Lodowick Muggleton to be thy mouth: That I have given you power both to bless and curse, and whoso­ever either of you shall bless or curse it shall be in the power of no Spirit nor Angel, No nor as Mugleton says in page 40 in the Almighties himself to revoke from eternal Damnation.

This falacy being blown about by some of their graceless Adherents, the greedy Vulgarity mistake [Page 3] it for a Verity, and to shew their obedience, as well as Credulity, relinquish their former principles as eroni­ous, to list themselves under the destructive Banners of of his forgeries and impostures.

The promising superficies of this black design at first seem'd to recompence the paines of these spiritual Engineers with a favourable progression, but Heaven who could no longer forbear to punish their impieties, sufficiently testified its displeasure in Beckoning Reeve, to give an account in the other World of those Dam­nable principles, wherewith he had tainted the minds, if not Ruin'd the Souls of divers in this; which one would have thought might have put a stop at least to the proceedings of this Lodowick Muggleton, who now double Gilded with Brass, pretended also to have had left him by Reeve a double portion both of spirit, power, and commission; inlarging his Authority even beyond the prerogative of any deceased Saint, Prophet, or Apostle, as will by a Letter he sent R. Fransworth, and the said Book of his, entitled the Quakers Neck-broken, most obviously appear. In the Letter page 43. he writes thus; speaking of the power he pretends God has given him to bless, curse, &c. ‘Neither (says he) will God give this power to any after me, neither can any man come to the assurance of the favour of God now in these days but in believing that God gave this power to John Reeve and my self. For there is no coming to know God or see God, but by the faith in this commission of the spirit, for I having the Keys of Heaven and Hell, none can get into Heaven unless the witness of this spirit doth open the Gate.’ Again [Page 4] in his Quakers Neck-broken, page. 20. He say. ‘Nei­ther doth any man know the Scriptures, neither can any man interpret them truly but my self, and in the same page he goes on.’ ‘God hath put the two edged sword into my mouth, that whoso [...]ver I pronounce cursed, is cursed to Eternity. For I do not only say let him be accursed, but I have power to curse men or Angels to Eternity.’ And in Page 28. Speaking of his spiritual knowledg, how he has resolved all sorts of questions in Divinity, these are his words.

Nay, some have gone so far as to ask who made God, and I have given answer to that also. Again in his letter to S.H. and W.S. who in a former letter condemned him for Cursing, to which Muggleton answers, page 17. As for my mouth being full of cursing, that is my commission. Again page. 18. ‘Full of his Cursing I confess my mouth is, and I do rejoice in it too, I know that God is well pleased in the damnation of those I have cursed, and I am wonderous well sa­tisfied in giving Judgment upon them acccording to the Tenelt of my condition.’ In fine Reader, I am a weary, and it makes my hair stand an end to Rake thus in the Naucious Dunghil of his horrid Blasphemies, his whole Volume is nothing but a promiscuous composition of He­resie, Delusion, irreligion and Blasphemy: Himself a person who for this 20 years and upwards has shaken hands with Morality, Discretion, and Piety, who for that inconsider­able Pelf, Honor and respect, he dayly receives from the hands of his poor deluded, and without sudden conver­sion, I fear miserable Disciples, willingly surrenders his interest in Heaven; and as if he had too advantagious an exchange, throws the wretched Souls of his friends and acquaintance into the Bargain

I would earnestly desire the Reader if he be not yet esta­blished in opinion, to endeavour to seek a settlement there­in, first by his prayers to almighty God to that purpose, and [Page 5] after by the healing advice of some learned Divine, from whom he will certainly find more sollid satisfaction than he can ever expect from these Quacks and Empricks in Di­vinity; who handle the soul, as others do their body, not so much for the patients good, as their own Interest. Who if they can make a seasonable approach to a Death bed, & there by a pretended commission wheedle the departing Disciple into a belief that they have received the Keys of Heaven; Can turn who they will into everlasting Joys, and hurry who they please into eternal Bliss; if by the charm­ing Rhetoricks of a Gray head, comely Visage, demure Countenance, and plausible tongue, he can but once perswade them to fall out with the World, and sur­render these temporial blessings, in hopes of those spi­ritual ones (of which these sort of men make such large promises) there is none of them but will gladly part with, all their pretended Keys of Heaven, for one real one which unloks to a hundred a year upon Earth, or that would scruple to give a man a note of their hands for the securing his eternal bliss, provided the other would requite him with a considerabled Lease, to bestow among his sanctified children.

Whether Muggleton and his Brethren have ever re­ceived any of these soul feeling blessings, I leave it to his and their consciences, and did I know it to be true I should scarcely put my self to the charges of a Tear to bemoan the cheat, for indeed, who can seriously pitty those persons who having been Educated in the wholsome principles of the Church of England, when he shall see them like Bastards and not Sons, forsake those Teats whereout they often have, and still might, suck such nourishing milk; when he beholds them runing after a nonsensical Impostor, frought up with no­thing [Page 6] but interest and Imdudence; a kidnapper of Souls, who would sell them for less mony to the Devil, than the other do Children to Barbados; a fellow who if a man can find any connextion in his writings, it runs di­rectly Diamiter to those of the Holy Scriptures, a wretch so arragant, that he dares to pretend a greater power than ever was delivered to any of the Prophets or Apostles, that denies both the real existance and absolute, and by all undoubted ubiquity of his Creator, pag. 34. pag. 23. That Nulls the Vallidity of several Texts of Scripture, and particularly denies Solomon to be endued with the Spirit of God, when he writ the Book of Proverbs. And in short is so rediculous both in Di­vinity and Philosophy, as to define God to be a corpo­real assence exactly in the shape of man, that his influ­ence is confin'd within the narrow circuit of the upper Heavens only. And lastly which is enough to give any in­telligible Reader a surfeit both of him and his Doctrine, he affirms his writings are in themselves more excellent, and ought to be by all men more respected and regarded than the Holy Scriptures.

Now Reader after thou hast known all this of Mug­gleton, & yet wilt not be perswaded, but will adher to his Damnable principles, wert thou thereby cheated into a­ny other loss than that of thy eternal Soul it would ra­ther cause my derision than Pitty: but since thereby thou art to forego thy everlasting prosperity, I cannot but be­hold thee with extream compassion.

LOdowick Muggleton was born of poor, though honest Parents, living at Chippenham, within fifteen Miles of Bristol: His Relations having but little Means, and a great Charge of Children to maintain, they were forced to send their Daughters to wait on their neighbouring Gentry, and to place their Sons to such Trades as cost little Binding them Apprentices; but, amongst all the rest of those of this worshipful Brood, they were blessed withal, they might have observed, even in his cunicular Days, in this Lodowick Muggleton, an obstinate, dissen­tious, and opposive Spirit; which made them desirous to settle him at some Distance from them, and also to bind him to such a Trade, and Master, as might curb him from that Free­dom, which the Moroseness of his coarse Na­ture extorted from his too indulgent Parents: By which Means, as soon as he had made some small Inspection into his Accidence, without any other Accomplishment, besides a little Writing and Casting of Accompts, he was hur­ried up to London, and there bound Apprentice to one of the cross-legged Order, but of an indifferent Reputation in the Place where he lived, though by Trade a Taylor. We will pass over the Parenthesis of his Youth in Si­lence, therein being nothing but usual Wag­geries, which generally recommend to our Ex­pectation something remarkable, when the use­ful Extravagancies shall be seasoned with Age.

When the Time of his Apprenticeship grew near its Expiration, so that he was admitted more Liberty, than formerly was granted him, he was observed to be a great Haunter of Con­venticles; insomuch that there could not a dissenting Nonconformist diffuse his Sedition in any obscure Corner of the City, but this Lodowick Muggleton would have a Part of it; by which Means, continuing in the same idle Curiosity, and taking great Observation on that unknown Gain, many of that canting Tribe got by their deluded Auditors, he pro­posed to himself a certain and considerable In­come to be got by the same Means, by which he had observed many of those great Pretenders gull both himself and others: For a rooked Conventicler, like a bankrupt Gamester, having, for some Time, been cullied out of his Money, learns the Trick, sets up Hector, and trades for himself.

Thus did Lodowick Muggleton, by sliding out of one Religion into another, so dissatisfy his Judgment, and run himself from the solid Basis of his first Principles; first degenerating, from the orthodox Tenets of the Church of Eng­land, to Presbytery; from thence to Indepen­dency; thence to Anabaptism; thence to Qua­kerism; and, lastly, to no Religion at all.

When Men have, thus, once fooled them­selves out of Religion and a good Conscience, it is no Wonder, that their secular Interests draw them into all Sorts of Impiety and Pro­faneness, as it has done this Lodowick Muggle­ton; who, though, in himself, a poor, silly, despicable Creature, yet had the Confidence to think he had Parts enough to wheedle a Com­pany of silly, credulous Proselytes out of their Souls and Estates: And, indeed, he has had such admirable Success in that wicked Enter­prise, that, tho' we cannot absolutely conclude, that he has cheated them of the first; yet we can prove, if Occasion were, that he has de­frauded them of the latter; as has been often told him, since the first Day of his Stan [...]ng in the Pillory.

It has been told already, how this impious Impostor lays Claim to a counterfeit Commis­sion, whereby he has infected the Truths of many honest, ignorant People, with an extra­ordinary Power, that was delivered to him by as infamous a Blasphemer as himself, John Reeve; who, as he formerly rivalled Muggle­ton in Impiety, had he been yet living, should certainly have clubbed with him in his deserved Punishment.

It is about twenty-one Years, since this im­pudent Creature began his Impostures; who, knowing himself as defective of Reason, as of Religion, made it one of the grand Maxims of his Policy, That his Proselytes should be fully persuaded, contrary to all Sense, or Probability. Reason was that great Beast, spoken of in the Revelation, and, consequently, not to be con­sulted withal, as to the Examining of any fun­damental Point in Religion; whereby he se­cured both himself, and his shallow Disciples, from all those frequent Disputations and Argu­ings, which, otherwise, must necessarily have diverted them from adhering to his damnable, impious, and irrational Tenets; which I pur­posely omit, as being too unsufferably profane for the modest Ear of any sober, well-meaning Christian.

But we may judge a little of the Theorick by the Practick, I mean, of his Principles by his Practices, and of the Soundness of his Doctrine by those Duties he held himself, and his Fol­lowers, obliged to, in the Performance of it; which, indeed, were none at all; it being his usual Custom, when they met on the Sabbath-day, to entertain them with a Pig of their own Sow; I mean, with Wine, strong Drink, or Victuals; which either they sent in before-hand, or brought along with them; allowing them to be as licentious, as they pleased, in all Things that might gratify, or indulge their Senses.

A Friend of mine was, one Sunday, walking in the Fields; and, meeting there an old Ac­quaintance of his, who was lately turned Mug­gletonian, with a young Baggage in his Hand, which, he did more than suspect, was light, he could not forbear Expressing his Admiration, to this Muggletonian himself, in these, or such-like Terms: ‘I cannot but wonder to see you, my old Neighbour, who have, for these many Years, busied yourself in the Study of Reli­gion, and was, not long since, like to have gone mad, because you knew not which Opi­nion to stick to. I say, I cannot but won­der to see you Abroad, on the Sabbath-day, in this brisk Posture; you are altered both in Countenance, Apparel, and Manners, so that I almost doubt, whom I speak to. Ah, an­swered the Muggletonian, you know, Friend, how I have heretofore troubled myself about Religion indeed; insomuch that it had al­most cost me my Life, but all in vain, till about six Weeks since; at which Time I met with Lodowick Muggleton, who has put me into the easiest Way to Heaven, that ever was invented; for he gives us Liberty, pro­vided we do but believe in his Commission, freely to launch into all those Pleasures, which others, less knowing, call Vices; and, after all, will assure us of eternal Salvation.’ Behold, Reader, what a sweet Religion here is like to be.

But, as Muggleton was liberal in the Free­dom he gave his Adherents, so he was always careful to avoid the Prohibitions of the Law; he generally appointed his Bubbles to meet in the Fields, where he also permitted them to hu­mour their Sensualities with any Recreation, not excepting Uncleanness itself; for which Profaning the Sabbath he was, in Oliver Crom­well's Time, committed to Newgate, where he had like to have been so dealt withal then, that Tyburn had saved the Pillory this Trouble now: But that perfidious Usurper, conscious to him­self, that Muggleton could not he a greater Im­postor in the Church, than he was in the State, upon the Consideration of Fratres in malis, restored him to his Liberty.

Howbeit, a little before Oliver's Death, Muggleton, by continual Flatteries, had got into his Books, and, amongst other Prophecies con­cerning [Page] him, had declared, that Oliver should perform more wonderful Actions, than any he had yet atchieved, before he died. But, he happening to depart this Life, before he had done any Thing else that was remarkable, Muggle­ton was demanded, Why his Prophecy proved not true? He answered very wisely, and like himself, viz. That he was sure Oliver would have performed them, had he lived long enough.

But, since his Gracious Majesty's Return, he has driven on a much more profitable theolo­gical Cheat, having assumed the Liberty not only of infusing what Doctrine he pleased into the Minds of his ignorant deluded Followers, but writ several profane Books, which, to his great Advantage, he dispersed among them; poisoning their Minds thereby with a Hodge­podge of rotten Tenets, whereby they are be­come uncapable of relishing the more sound, wholesome, and undoubted Principles of the Church of England.

I shall conclude with one Story more con­cerning Muggleton, and so leave him to the Censure of the ingenuous Reader. A timish Gentleman, accoutered with Sword and Peruke, hearing the Noise this Man caused in the Town, had a great Desire to discourse with him, whom he found alone in his Study; and, takin [...] Advantage of that Occasion, he urged Muggleton so far, that, knowing not what to say, h [...] falls to a solemn Cursing of the Gentleman who was so inraged thereat, that he drew hi [...] Sword, and swore he would run him through immediately, unless he recanted the Sentence o [...] Damnation, which he had presumptuously cas [...] upon him. Muggleton, perceiving, by the Gentleman's Looks, that he really intended what he threatened, did not only recant his Curse, but pitifully intreated him whom he had cursed before; by which we may understand the Invalidity both of him, and his Commission.

Thus, whoever considers the Contents of Muggleton's whole Life, will find it, in toto, nothing but a continued Cheat of above twen­ty-one Years long; which, in the Catastrophe, he may behold worthily rewarded with the mo­dest Punishment of a wooden Ruff, or Pillory; his grey Hairs gilded with Dirt and rotten Eggs; and, in fine, himself brought, by Reason of his own horrid and irreligious Actions, into the greatest Scorn and Contempt imaginable, by all the Lovers of Piety, Discretion, or good Man­ners.