Thursday, May the 21st, 2009
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Immediately after God's revelation on the third, fourth, and fifth of February 1652 to John Reeve that he and his cousin Lodowicke Muggleton were the “Two Last Witnesses”…
“There followed a period of hectic blessing and cursing which could have been lifted straight from the pages of Edwards's Gangraena. A few examples will convey the flavour. John Robins, and a rival prophet [Thomas] Tany, were cursed and destroyed. A man called Pearson smote blows on Muggleton's head; ten days later he was dead. At a Ranter tavern in the Minories Reeve placed his head on the ground for an enemy to trample upon. The infidel's foot was arrested in flight. He could not go through with it. Muggleton noted ‘the people all marvelled at this thing’. Barker tricked Reeve into blessing him, but was then exposed and damned by Muggleton. An over-zealous follower called Cooper cursed fifteen fellow silk-weavers off his own bat. The cynical Captain Stasy arranged dinner for the prophets with Goffin, a divine. The dinner ended with a predictable damnation for the clergyman.”
From The World Of The Muggletonians, Christopher Hill, Barry Reay, William Lamont (1983).
Elsewhere we discover that Lodowicke Muggleton was himself cursed by that saintly Quaker William Penn: “To the bottomless pit are you sentenced, from whence you came, and where the endless worm shall gnaw and torture your imaginary soul to eternity.” I am not clear whether this curse was pronounced before or after Muggleton published a pamphlet with the resounding title The Neck Of The Quakers Broken (1663).