tage them nothing at all but to do you a mischief, neither can that disinherit you of your right in the temporal, nor prevent him from paying you that which he oweth you, therefore I shall inform you in some measure the strength of the spiritual court. First, they have power to proceed so far as to excommunication, and when they have done so, you may go to the proctor of the court, and take it off for money as Mrs. Carter did; she stood excommunicate several years, and took it off at last for twenty shillings; and Mr. Sudbury was the like when he was alive, and his was sued to a Capienda writ, yet he got it off for fifty shillings; but the spiritual court itself doth commonly proceed no further than a bare excommunication, except some envious person will be at the charge to sue out a Capienda writ, and that they sue out here at London; all Capienda writs are fetched out of the High Court of Chancery, the writ doth cost thirty shillings itself, besides other charges; and when they have got it, they must have the hands of several bishops of two or three courts, and he that layeth out this money never hath one penny of it again if it be executed, so that except a man were made up of nothing but malice, he would never put himself to that trouble, charge, and vexation of spirit, to have nothing else for his pains and charge; and when a Capienda writ is executed upon the person of a man, it cannot take away of his cattle nor goods, nor hinder a man of his right in any suit of law, except it be for paying of tithes and other church duties; but for the things aforesaid, for not going to church, nor baptizing children, that writ doth not touch the estate of a man, nor take away his right in law, only this, if a man have this writ sued out upon him, if he overthrow the adversary, the judge and jury will give him the debt and charges, for the court cannot give away a man's just cause and right because he is excommunicated, but this a Capienda writ will hinder the man, that he cannot have an execution upon his adversary's person nor goods until the excommunication be taken off. There was an example of this awhile ago, there was a widow-woman, a friend of ours in Kent, and there was a neighbour of her's that was at law with her about a field that joined to her's, and she was an excommunicated person a great while; the suit was brought to trial, her adversary put himself to the charge of a Capienda writ against her, thinking that she should not have had the benefit of the law by reason of that writ, but the judge and jury gave her the verdict against him both debt and charges, only she could not have an execution granted her upon his person nor goods until she had taken the excommunication off, which she did, and it cost her four pounds to take it off, and then her adversary paid what the court ordered, for a Capienda writ is only for the person of a man; and if it be served upon a man by officers, there is no bail to be taken, he must pay the debt, and the charges, promise to conform, or else go to prison; but no goods can be touched except a man be sued to an outlawry, which must be some extraordinary occasion. Thus I have given you a hint of the effects of a Capienda writ. Now I shall write a few words to satisfy you, that my answer to William Penn's book is got safe out of the press, but with great charge and difficulty; the volume is pretty large, nineteen sheets and an half, and there is variety of matter in it that is new, never written before, very pleasant to read; the books are half a crown a-piece, I will not let one go under to friend nor stranger, therefore if you please to make those frieiends acquainted with it that will go to the price of ft, let them send money, and I will send as many of them as the money doth amount to at half a crown a-piece. You wrote to me a great while ago for a book bound altogether for our friend Thomas Hall, I sent you an answer of that letter concerning that book, but I have heard no answer of it never since. This is all at present, only my love, with my wife's love, remembered unto yourself and wife, and all friends else in the faith there with you. I rest your friend in the eternal truth, LODOWICKE MUGGLETON. The Postern, London, 4 Copy of a Letter wrote by the Prophet Lodowicke Muggleton to William Penn, Quaker, bearing date from London, January 23, 1673. William Penn, Quaker, that blaspheming reprobate Devil, I THOUGHT good to send thee an answer of thy wicked anti-christian pamphlet, where thee mayest be convinced, though not converted, but the more hardened in thy blasphemy against the true God in the form of a man; and that sentence and judgment that I passed upon you, in the discourse between us, may be more surely established upon your heart, even so strongly, that your God, that is an infinite formless spirit without a body, cannot revoke it, nor take it off you to eternity; and you shall find these heavenly secrets, which you call foolish dreams and impostures, to be too strong for your anti-christian spirit of reason the devil in you, which you call God; neither can I wish for your soul's sake, that you may think in time, and have a deep repentance, and come to find forgiveness with the true God, because I know he did reprobate you in the seed of the serpent; and that you are predestinated in the seed to blaspheme against the true God, as made man in his own image and likeness, that you might justly be damned to eternity; so that, if it were possible that you should be convinced now, I have given sentence upon you for your blasphemy, I then must of necessity be damned if you believe; but I know in whom I have believed, in that God that hath given me power to give sentence upon such anti-christian devils, that deny the body and person of God; and I am justified of God, and justified in my own conscience; neither will it stand with God's glory to save us both; and if those revelations of Reeve and Muggleton's hath declared be filthy, devilish, and sottish imaginations, as you call them, then certainly our end will be endless pain indeed; but if we be true, as I know we are, then you have given just sentence upon yourself, that your end will be endless pain from the never-dying worm in your conscience in the resurrection, when eternity doth begin to rise, and time doth end. LODOWICKE MUGGLETON. Postern, London, Jan. 23, 1673. A Copy of a Letter sent by the Prophet Lodowicke Muggleton to Mr. George Gamble, in Ireland, Feb. 14, 1673. Loving Friend in the true Faith, George Gamble, I SAW your letter bearing date the 30th of January, 1673, wherein I perceive the seed of faith is much risen in you, since the time I saw you; in that you do believe in a personal God, and in his messengers whom he hath sent, to declare the true God in this last age, what he is in his form and nature and that you do believe this God will raise, the dead at the last day, the true believer to everlasting glory, and the unbeliever to endless misery. For without this faith, it is impossible for any man or woman upon earth to have true peace in the soul, as to life eternal; because this is that peace which the world cannot give, because it riseth from the seed of faith in man, which is the seed of God in man; but the peace of this world, it ariseth from the seed of reason in man, which is the seed of the serpent, the lost angel in man. Therefore the peace which this world gives is full of doubtings, and accompanied with fears that a worse thing will follow after death; but the act of faith hath no doubt in it, but doth say to this mountain of fears, that presents itself to the mind, Be removed, and cast into the bottom of the sea. seed of faith in man, that is less than a grain of mustard seed, doth this and more: Out of this doth the day-star arise, that enlighteneth every man that believeth, so that he cannot walk in darkness as the The |