the line of those sort of men; it is as natural for those sort of men to persecute for conscience sake, and persecute prophets, and so sin against the Holy Ghost, as it is for fish to swim in the water; so that I do no ways admire the thing, but do see it must be so, and it can be no otherwise. But this I would have you to know, that if your intent had been real, then would you have come alone, and have discoursed with me privately, and not to bring great officers of the parish with you, to hear us discourse: so that your intentions were not good towards me, but by consequence very evil; and it was the ready way to have procured the sentence of eternal damnation. But in regard I do not hear that you did any ways revile and speak evil of me, or of the doctrine declared by me, by calling it blasphemy, or me a deceiver, or such like terms, whatsoever your intent was in bringing those men with you.

These things considered, I shall wave the sentence of damnation upon you at the present, for this your wicked intent towards me; only this yoke I shall put upon your neck, by virtue of my commission from God:

The thing is this, I understand that you, being a pretended minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, (I suppose you will own yourself a true minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ; else what do you get up into a pulpit to preach to the people?) For yet you professing yourself a minister of Christ, I hear you present, or cause to be presented, divers of your parishioners for not coming to church. Is this the practice of a true minister of Christ? Surely no. Did Did you ever read in Scriptures, that any minister of Christ did so? Do you follow the example of the good shepherd? The Lord Christ speaketh of the good shep

herd having an hundred sheep, and one of those sheep went astray, the good shepherd left the ninety and nine to seek that which was lost, or gone astray; and when he had found it, what did he do to it? He brought it home in his arms, and did nourish it and cherish it, and took more care of that which was lost, or gone astray, than he did of all the rest, that never went astray. This is the property of a good shepherd.

The moral is this: every true minister of Christ is a shepherd, and the people of his parish are his sheep, and the shepherd doth feed his sheep with such heavenly pasture; that is, with such saving doctrine, which giveth the sheep assurance of everlasting life ; so that their souls are fatted with the joys of heaven, in the full assurance of everlasting life; and this heavenly pasture, it casteth out all fear of eternal death.

This ought to be your practice and your power, if you were a chosen minister of Christ; but how contrary to a true minister do you act: for if any of your sheep be gone astray to error, as you call it, and dissent from your worship, then, instead of bringing them home in your arms, and giving them bread to eat, and water to drink, to nourish their bodies, and good admonition, exhortation, and the true interpretation of the Scriptures, to feed their souls; instead of this, you present them, and labour to excommunicate them, and send forth the constables, church-wardens, and officers, to apprehend them, to bring them before the temporal magistrates, and so cast them into prison, or else get the wool off their backs, and leave them bare.

Is this the practice of a true minister of Christ? I suppose any conscientious man would be ashamed to own himself a minister of Christ, and yet do these

things; but it is the custom of most national ministers to do so; therefore I do not marvel at it; because I know there is none of you chosen ministers of God but being chosen by men, ye act as men, yea, as wicked men.

;

And seeing you are made a minister by men, and from men, and not from Christ, why are you not contented with that wages that men have appointed for you, and let mens consciences alone.

Therefore I shall say unto you as John Baptist said unto those soldiers that asked him, saying, And what shall we do? You know his answer was, They should be content with their wages, and do violence to no man. So

I

say unto you, be you contented with that wages the parish hath allowed you, and present and persecute no man for his conscience.

So, as I am a minister, messenger, and ambassador chosen of God, by virtue of my commission from him, I shall lay this burthen upon you.

That if you shall present, or cause the constables, church-wardens, or other officers, to present any man. or woman under your ministry, for matters of conscience, or for not coming to church, let the people be of what opinion soever (always provided they pay you what is allotted for you, and the parish, and state-assessments;) but if you shall present, or cause to be presented, any, for the causes aforesaid, after the receipt of these lines;

Then, from the Lord Jesus Christ, the only wise God, I do pronounce you cursed and damned, both in soul and body, from the presence of God, elect men, and angels, to eternity.

LODOWICKE MUGGLETON.

A Copy of a Letter written by the Prophet Lodowicke Muggleton, to Mr. William Fershall, High Constable of Orwell, in Cambridgeshire, bearing date from London, January the 19th, 1666.

Sir,

I HAVE heard of you these four or five years,and I always heard a good report of you, for a moderate spirited man, and that your spirit is naturally inclined to peace and quietness; and that you are not naturally inclined to persecute any man for his conscience in point of worship: yet I hear, through the instigation and desire of the priest of your parish, that you, with the petty-constables, and the priest, did consent together, pretending to see me, and to have some discourse with me. And now what your intent was in it, I shall leave that to yourself; but that I know that your intents could not be good towards me: for I know if you follow the advice of your minister, your intent cannot be good, but altogether evil; for it hath been the practice of the priests and Levites, in all ages, to persecute the truth, and true prophets. So they did by the Lord Jesus himself; for it was always their practice to propound. questions to entrap and ensnare the messengers of the Lord; and when they have words from a man, so as to ground persecution upon it, then they turn it over to the temporal magistrate, and officers of the civil government, to put their wicked malice and hatred of truth, under the pretence of high blasphemy, or else horrible opinions, or great errors: I say, they turn it over to the temporal powers, and the temporal

officers must put their wicked minister's intent in

execution.

This I know by experience; for I have tasted of the priests cruelty before now. And this I suppose would have been the case now, had the priest and you met with me. But I am sorry that such men as you should be priest-ridden, to go a persecuting strangers at his desire and request, without a warrant: surely you did it out of ignorance, not knowing the power of an high constable, that he may choose whether he will stir in such cases without a warrant; or else you did sympathize with the minister, Mr. Martyn, in his wicked design towards me. One of these two must be the motive to move you to go along with him. But I shall impute it to the want of the knowledge of your own power, rather than any desire of persecution in you. Therefore suffer me to give you a word of advice, and do not think scorn that such a one as I should give you advice; for I have given some judges of the land advice in point of persecution for conscience; how that judges of the land ought to mind the laws of the land, and to give righteous judgment according to law, and not to meddle with mens consciences in matters of worship; the conscience belongeth to God. What have judges to do with errors in judgment, there being no laws of the land broken, they ought not to meddle with any thing but what belongeth to the temporal law; so you being highconstable, you ought to mind the place you are in; you are to keep the temporal peace where you live, and if any warrant come from any higher than yourself, if it be for treason, murder, felony, tumults, or such like, you are to search houses, or raise aid, and take prisoners such as are found guilty of such crimes, or suspected to be such persons, with many other