wrap the Philistine's sword in an holy ephod; from whence else is it, that he can crave a blessing to the designs, though never so ungodly, and give thanks for the success, be it never so wicked? that he will not swear, but can dispense with the profitable sin of lying: that he will not be drunk, to be seen of men, but yet can take a brotherly rouse in a corner; that he walks as though he had made a covenant with his eyes, and yet si uxor non vult aut non si possit, veniat ancilla, is wholsome doctrine with him: that he is a zealous observer of the sabbath, and yet can make less conscience of schism than a surplice: that he cries, væ mihi si non evangelizo vero, and yet allows no imposition of hands, but broken pates: that he abhors idols, and yet can commit sacrilege, which, what is it, but to burn the idol with a coal from the altar? that he exhorts his beloved to constancy under persecution, and yet, come what will, he can lick himself so whole, it will be hard to tell where he had been hurt. In short, that he is a perfect Samaritan, for let the Gentiles prevail, and he is of the race of Ishmael: and let the Jews get the upperhand, he had Abraham to his father: to conclude, he is a glow-worm, that shines best in the night of ignorance, one whose faith has eaten up his charity: one that has torn the seamless coat into rags, and tacked them together to cover his nakedness: one that, having for. saken the fountain, has hewed to himself but broken cisterns: one that swallows all things unchewed, and brings them up again as raw and undigested: one, whose eyes are at the end of the earth, and yet would be thought not to mistake his way. In short, one that has an excuse for every thing that he should not do, and a salvo for every thing that he should do: and all this by scripture, adeo nihil est quod S. Scriptura torqueri non possit, modo torqueatur : in a word, he is one of whom it may be said, as Heraclius of the bow, Τὸ μὲν ὄνομα βίῳ, τὸ δὲ ἔργον Bávaros; and, but that I find him so well cut out by Horace, I had not yet taken off my hand from so everlasting an argument,

Mala quem scabies, aut morbus regius urget

Aut fanaticus error, aut iracunda Diana;
Vesanum tetigisse timent, fugiuntque

Qui sapiunt

And not without reason; for, though his distemper lies not in too much learning, yet, to my unenlightened understanding, he speaks not the words, either of soberness or truth, but darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge.

A MODEST ACCOUNT

OF

THE WICKED LIFE OF THAT GRAND IMPOSTOR,

LODOWICK MUGGLETON:

Wherein are related all the remarkable actions he did, and all the strange accidents
that have befallen him, ever since his first coming to London, to this
twenty-fifth of January, 1676.

ALSO, A PARTICULAR OF THOSE REASONS,
Which first drew him to these damnable Principles:

WITH

Several pleasant stories concerning him, proving his commission to be but counterfeit, and himself a cheat, from divers expressions which have fallen from his own mouth.

Licensed according to order.

Quarto, containing six pages, printed at London, for B. H. in 1676.

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 usual 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 re. ligion 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 standing 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 de livered 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 punish

ment.

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 arguments, 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 Muggle. tonian, 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 won'der to see you, my old neighbour, who have, for these many years, 'busied yourself in the study of religion, and was, Hot 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 be 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 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 nssumed 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 hodge-podge 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, taking advantage of that occasion, he urged Muggleton so far, that, knowing not what to say, he falls to a solemn cursing of the gentleman; who was so inraged thereat, that he drew his sword, and swore he would run him through immediately, unless he rccanted the sentence of damnation, which he had presumptuously cast 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 man

ners.

A TRUE AND PERFECT ACCOUNT OF

The examination, confession, trial, condemnation, and execution of JOAN PERRY, & HER TWO SONS, JOHN AND RICHARD PERRY,

FOR THE

SUPPOSED MURDER OF WILLIAM HARRISON, GENT. Being one of the most remarkable occurrences which hath happened in the memory of man, sent in a letter (by Sir T. O. of Burton, in the county of Gloucester, knight, and one of his majesty's justices of the peace) to T. S. Doctor of Physick in London.

LIKEWISE,

Mr. HARRISON's OWN ACCOUNT,

How he was conveyed into Turkey, and there made a slave for above two years: and then, his master, which bought him there, dying, how he made his escape, and what hardship he endured; who, at last, through the providence of God, returned to England, while he was supposed to be murdered; here having been his manservant arraigned, who falsly impeached his own mother and brother as guilty of the murder of his master; they were all three arraigned, convicted, and executed on Broadway-hills in Gloucestershire.

London: printed for Rowland Reynolds, next Arundel-gate, over-against St. Clement's Church in the Strand, 1676. Quarto, containing twenty-three pages.

six

UPON PON Thursday, the sixteenth day of August, 1660, William Harrison, steward to the Lady Viscountess Campden, at Campden of age, walked from in Gloucestershire, being about seventy years Campden aforesaid, to Charringworth, about two miles from thence, to receive his lady's rent; and, not returning so early as formerly, his