A Copy of a Letter written by the Prophet Lodowicke Muggleton, to Mrs. Ellen Sudbury, from London, bearing date December 15, 1662.

Dear Friend in the true Faith, Ellen Sudbury,

I RECEIVED your letter with the inclosed, and I have read it over, and I find very little in it more than there was in the other; nay, the other was the chief master-piece, only towards the latter end of this doth give me better satisfaction than the other did, because in the latter end of this letter doth plainly shew what their God is which they believe in, which is no other but what the Heathen philosophers did declare, and something of Jacob Bemon's philosophy; neither did it arise from their own revelation or experience, nor from the seed of reason within them, but merely by reading other folk's works for I could, if it were of necessity, shew you a book that doth speak the very same words, and doth give the very same definition of God as they do; for every Heathen philosopher will say, that God is love, and life, and wisdom, and glory, with many other excellencies in himself, and yet not to be defined or distinct, neither is he to be known by his creature.

To what purpose then did God send prophets and apostles into the world, to tell people of such a God as cannot be defined, nor made known unto man ; when as those that speak the Scriptures, their declarations were only to bring men to the knowledge of God; therefore it is said in Scripture, it is life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

It is but turning the words thus: it is life eternal to know, that this Jesus Christ, which is sent into the world, is the only true God; for it is better, and a more safe way for a man to believe, that a mere mortal man is a God, than to believe God to be an infinite Spirit without a body: for can there be love, life, wisdom, and glory acted forth, and yet have no person or body to act in? Can a man love his wife if she have never a body? Yet by these, people must love God, and yet he hath no person at all, neither can he be defined nor known, which is contrary to the apostle John's faith; for, saith he, if thou doest not love thy brother, whom thou doest see, how canst thou love God, whom thou didst never see. And because we never saw God with this natural eye, will it follow therefore, that we must believe that he is no formal person at all; when as the Scripture doth call upon men to love the Lord their God, with all their hearts, and with all their strength, which is impossible for men to do, if God had no person at all ; nay, and not only a person, but the very person and form of a man, else a man could never love God; for men doth love God because he is like God, for every thing doth love its like; therefore it is that God loves man, because man's person and form is the image and likeness of God, therefore God loves

man.

Indeed I need not write these things to inform you, for you have given great testimonies of your faith, light, and knowledge in a personal God, which this commission of the Spirit doth declare, which faith of yours shall bear you up above all philosophy knowledge whatsoever.

But I write these things that you may see the more clearly the vanity and emptiness, and how unsatis

fied that faith is to the mind whose God hath no form nor person at all, which I know your own experience can witness, you having been acquainted with the Bemonist's principles, You know what satisfaction you found in it, and what you find now in the faith of this commission; for the faith of this commission will uncover all the cloathing of every opinion, though never so seeming righteous, whereby their nakedness will be seen.

Dear Friend,

I would desire you to send this letter inclosed as it is directed.

I would have sent by the Chesterfield carrier on Friday last, but he was gone a little before I came; therefore I thought good to put you to the trouble to send it to her, because I am going into Kent this Wednesday and about a month hence I do intend to be at home again, therefore for the present I shall rest, with my love to you and your husband,

:

LODOWICKE MUGGLETON.

My daughter Sarah and Mr. Hatter desireth to remember their loves to you and your husband. pla IA

A Copy of a Letter wrote by the Prophet Lodowicke Muggleton, to Sir Thomas Twisden, dated from Rootam in Kent, January 6, 1663, as followeth.

Sir,

I UNDERSTAND that you are a judge of the civil law of the land, and that you are so by commission from the king: I suppose that you are the man which I have heard much of in London, commended for honour and renown in the wisdom and knowledge in the civil laws of England, else I suppose you would not have been chosen for that great place; which authority of yours I do own, and have always been obedient to the civil laws of the land, both to you and all other judges, neither did I ever break any of the king's laws, neither in the old king's time, nor now in this king's time; for I never did bear arms against his father, nor for no power then in being, neither have I had any meetings at my house, nor have beer. at any no where else, not since his majesty's restoration, nor many years before; so that it seems very strange, that I, being a free-born man of England, and a freeman of the city of London, and one that hath fined for many offices of the parish where I live, say it is somewhat strange that I should not have so much liberty as to come into the country to see my wife's mother, with other relations, but I must be hunted after as if I had committed some treason or felonies; which things I am more innocent of, I think, than any man in the world is at this day. And yet, through the ignorance and darkness of men and women, which know neither the law of God nor the

I

law of the land, they have reported strange things unto you, which have caused you to have a bad opinion of as pure a truth as ever was spoken by prophet or apostle, and to look upon me to be a deceiver: but I would have your honour to be careful what judgment you give of spiritual things before you know the cause why, lest you sin against the Holy Ghost, a sin which will never be forgiven, neither in this world, nor. in the world to come; for though you are knowing above most men in the law of the land, and can give judgment accordingly, even as the demerit shall deserve, yet God hath not made you the judge of spiritual and eternal matters, neither are you to judge of blasphemy against God: God himself is the only judge in those matters, and those whom he hath chosen, anointed, and sealed for that purpose, viz. his prophets and apostles, and those whom he hath sent now in this last age of the world.

But I suppose you know and do read in the Scriptures, that the prophets and apostles of old were counted by the generality of people in their time to be blasphemers and deceivers, and were persecuted thereupon; nay, the Lord Jesus himself was put to death upon that account, as may be read in the Scriptures.

And this I say, those which persecuted men upon the account of blasphemy (they having broke no civil law of the land) I say they would have been the same to the prophets and apostles of old, and to Christ himself, if they had been living in their time.

Also I understand you have a desire to see one of my books. Now I do not conceive that you desire to see it in love only, but that you might see what you could pick out of it, that you might have where