his own. On one of his missionary journeys he was arrested at Chesterfield, 1663, at the instance of John Coope, the vicar, on the charge of denying the Trinity. Coope had mistaken him for a quaker, and pronounced him, after examination, the ' soberest, wisest man of a fanatic that ever he talked with.' He was committed to Derby gaol, and after nine days' imprisonment was released on bail. At Derby he excited the curiosity of Gervase Bennet, a local magistrate, who had applied the term ' quaker ' to Fox and his following. Bennet engaged Muggleton in discussion, but, to the delight of his brother magistrate, met his match in him.
Muggleton's books were seized in London in 1670, but he evaded arrest. In 1675 he became executor to Deborah Brunt, widow of his friend John Brunt. In this capacity he brought an action of trespass against Sir John James in respect of house property in the Postern, London Wall. In the course of the suit he had to appear in the spiritual court, and was at once arrested on the charge of blasphemous writing. His trial took place at the Old Bailey on 17 Jan. 1677 before Sir Richard Rainsford [q. v.], chief justice of the king's bench, who pelted him with abuse, and Sir Robert Atkins, justice of the common pleas, who was more lenient. It was difficult to procure a verdict against him, for he had printed nothing since 1673, and thus came within the Act of Indemnity of 1674. But his ' Neck of the Quakers Broken ' bore the imprint ' Amsterdam . . . 1663 ; ' Amsterdam was certainly a false imprint, and it was argued (incorrectly) that the book had been antedated, and really printed in 1676. Sentence was passed by the recorder, George Jeffreys (1648-1689) [q. v.] Muggleton was amerced in 500l., and condemned to the pillory on three several' days, his books to be burned before his face. He was duly pilloried, and thrown into Newgate in default of the fine. At length, after finding 100l. and two sureties for good behaviour, he was released on 19 July 1677. The anniversary of this date (reckoned 30 July since the alteration of the calendar) has ever since been kept by Muggletonians as their ' little holiday ; ' the other annual festival, the ' great holiday,' being 14 Feb., in commemoration of the commission to Reeve.
The rest of his life was peaceful. He printed no more books, but prepared an autobiography, and wrote an abundance of letters, more or less doctrinal, afterwards printed as collected by Alexander Delarnaine [q. v.] and others. His correspondence is full of racy observations on human character, and his ethical instincts were clear and sound; he could turn a rude phrase, but was essentially a pure-minded man, of tough breed. He was a great match-maker, and ready on any emergency with shrewd and prudent counsel. No sort of approach to vice would he tolerate in his community. His puritanism lingered in his aversion to cards, which he classed with drunkenness. But he was no ascetic he enjoyed his pipe and glass. Nothing would stir him from English soil. Scotsmen he hated ; he never forgot Buchanan. In Ireland he had many followers, including Robert Phaire [q. v.], governor of Cork during the Commonwealth ; but not for ' ten thousand pounds ' would he ' come through that sea-gulf which lay between Dives in hell (Ireland) and Lazarus in heaven. He forbad the bearing of arms, except for self-defence against savages. Ready enough with his sentence of posthumous damnation, he was meanwhile for a universal tolerance ; 'I always,' he writes in 1668 to George Fox, 'loved the persecuted better than the persecutor.'
Swedenborg's accord with Muggleton in the primary article of the Godhead was noticed in 1800 by W. H. Reid (see White, Swedenborg, 1867, ii. 626). The coincidence extends to other points, and is the more remarkable as there is no reason to suppose that Swedenborg had any knowledge of the writer who has anticipated his treatment of several topics.
From the sacred canon Muggleton excluded (following Reeve) the writings assigned to Solomon. He added the 'Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,' which he knew in the version by Anthony Gilby [q. v.] He added also 'the books of Enoch,' though no book of Enoch was in his time known to be preserved. The translation in 1821 by Richard Laurence [q. v.] of the rediscovered ' Book of Enoch ' has completed the Muggletonian canon. For his own writings and those of Reeve he claims no verbal inspiration, yet an authority equal to that of scripture.
Muggleton died at his house in the Postern on 14 March 1698, in his 89th year, after a fortnight's illness. His body lay in state on 16 March at Loriners' Hall ; he was buried on 17 March in Bethlehem New churchyard ; the site is in Liverpool Street, opposite the station of the North London Railway. By his first wife, Sarah (1616-1639). whom he married in 1634 or 1635, he had three daughters ; Sarah, the eldest, was the first believer; she married John White; Elizabeth, the youngest, married Whitfield ; both survived him. By his second wife, Mary (1626-1647), whom he married in 1640
