commission requires nothing but faith in the heart, which works by love, without any outward ordinances of visible worship, which is a great burthen to bear to those that are under them. It would ask a whole sheet of paper to clear this thing; but I suppose, that they which are truly enlightened in the power of the three several commissions, may understand and be satisfied in what I have said in this letter, and in those books of ours that you have amongst you, concerning the worship that doth belong unto the three several commissions, they all of them differing one from the other, neither is the one bound to observe the other; but every commission, and the worship belonging to it, is to be observed by the believers of it, in its time and place, when it is in being, and not when it is out of date. The other thing, which is of concernment in your letter, is, that you have a monthly contribution, and your desire is to have my judgment in it, which is very pleasing unto me, and I do like it very well, it being a good work, and I am glad that you are so free amongst yourselves; because it was always against my nature and spirit to lay any engagement and burthen upon the believers of this commission, neither shall I: but in regard you are free to lay it on yourselves, it being sure a good work, I do freely give you my consent unto it; therefore do as your own freedom gives you leave and prosper. So resteth your friend in the true faith. London, Jan. 2, 1661. LODOWICKE MUGGLETON. My kind love remembered unto yourself and all the true believers in those parts in general, as if it were in particular to every person. A Copy of a Letter written by the Prophet Lodowicke Muggleton to Mrs. Dorothy Carter, near Chesterfield, bearing date February 13, 1660. Loving Friend, THOUGH unknown to me in the natural or visible sight of the body, yet by that invisible discerning which I have of your spirit by those few words which you have made mention of in your letter, wherein I find that the spirit of truth hath blown upon your heart, in that it hath made you willing for to seek and to enquire after the knowledge of these two witnesses. Therefore I shall give you a word or two to inform you who these two witnesses are, and in some measure how their testimony is received: therefore I would have you to mind and observe these lines as followeth. That as there are three that bear record in Heaven, The father, the word and the spirit; and these three are one, that is, these three are one distinct person in the form of a man; so likewise there is three that doth bear witness on earth, namely, the spirit, water and blood, and these three do agree in one. Now observe, those three upon earth, are these three commissions which should be acted forth upon the stage of this world. Which three commissions are these. First. The commission of Moses and the prophets. *E Secondly. The commission of Christ and the apostles. Thirdly. The commission of the Holy Spirit, which commission of the Spirit is now extant in the world at this day, and hath been here in England these nine years, and the sound of it hath gone through many parts of Christendom, as in this part of England, Scotland, Ireland, New England, Virginia, Barbadoes, and many other places, I will not here mention; but the doctrine of the commission of the Spirit hath been very little received in the world; but the most that hath received it, is here in London, and in Cambridge-shire, and in Kent. In these three places there is a few that is very well grounded in the belief of this spiritual commission; but one cause why there is so few that doth receive it, is because there is no visible forms of worship belonging to this spiritual commission, but doth altogether consist of the knowledge of the true God and the right devil, with the place and nature of Heaven and Hell, with the forms and nature of angels and the mortality of the soul. And upon these six principles in the knowledge of them dependeth all the eternal happiness of man. Therefore because it will be too tedious to write all these things, I have sent you a book; these books that were written by these two witnesses; they are bound up together, and they will inform you who those wo witnesses are, with their names, and the voice of God that spake to them, and their messages, with their doctrine, which they should set forth with many deep mysteries which is hard to be understood. Likewise I have sent you some books of his which he hath written in behalf of this commission; and as for the names of those two prophets, you will find them in the books, and the place where they live; only one of them, since the book of the Mortality of the Soul was written, is dead; namely, John Reeve, but Lodowicke Muggleton is yet living in Great Trinitylane, over against one Mills's, a Brown Baker. There is in that book, which is bound, all that was written by the two witnesses and prophets themselves; and there is laid down in those writings the true grounds of all divinity, which doth consist in the knowledge of the true God, and the right devil, with the knowledge of the two seeds, is those two keys that doth open the gates both of Heaven and hell, and there is none now in this world, that hath the keys given unto them, but these two prophets and witnesses of the Spirit only. Written by LODOWICKE MUGGLETON, The last true Witness and Prophet unto the Man Christ It was your lot to employ a man for to buy those books which hath been damned by the prophet's daughter, some eight or nine months since, for opposing of those books; and the revelation of his commission; therefore the man, remembering these books, and the sentence, will neither undertake to carry them, nor to lay down the money for them; because he hath a prejudice both against the books and the persons that wrote them. Therefore I shall desire Mrs. Griffith for to take some course that these books may be conveyed to you, and let her give orders how they may be sent, and how the money may be conveyed to her again; for then I shall desire Mrs. Griffith to set her name to the direction of this letter. LODOWICKE MUGGLETON. |