had convinced; whom we questioning, they said they believed all.  Besides there was an old country plain man of Essex, who said he had been with them twice before; and, being asked whether he were of the same opinion and did believe them, he answered, Truly he could not tell what to say, but he was come to have some discourse with them in private.”  Two mouths after this interview (Oct. 1653), they were brought before the Lord Mayor and Recorder for their letters to ministers, and sentenced to six months of imprisonment each.  But they were to be farther heard of in the world.  Muggleton indeed to as late as 1698, when he died at the age of ninety, leaving a sect called THE MUGGLETONIANS, who are perhaps not extinct yet.—­Among those who attached themselves to Reeves and Muggleton was a Thomas Tany, who called himself also “Theauro John,” and professed to be the Lord’s High Priest.  They would have nothing to do with him, and put him on their excommunicated list.  Whether because this preyed on the poor man’s mind or not, he was found in the lobby of the Parliament House on Saturday, Dec. 30. 1654, with a drawn sword, slashing at members, and knocking for admittance.  The House, who were then in the midst of their debate on the proper Limits of Toleration, ordered him to be brought to the bar:—­“Where,” say the journals, “being demanded by Mr. Speaker what his name was, answered’ Theeror John’; being asked why he came hither, saith, He fired his tent, and the people were ready to stone him because he burnt the Bible—­which he acknowledgeth he did.  Saith it is letters, not life.  And he drew his sword because the man jostled him at the door.  Saith he burnt the Bible because the people say it is the Word of God, and it is not; it deceived him.  And saith he burnt the sword and pistols and Bibles because they are the Gods of England.  He did it not of himself; and, being asked who bid him do it, saith God.’  And thereupon was commanded to withdraw.”  He was sent into custody immediately.—­Stray fanatics like Robins, Reeves, Muggleton, and Theauro John, seem to have been not uncommon through England.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Godwin, IV. 313-317; Mercurius Politicus, No. 167 (Aug. 18-25, 1653); Commons Journals, Dec. 30, 1654; Barclay’s Religious Societies, pp. 421-422.]

BOEHMENISTS AND OTHER MYSTICS:—­Of the German Mystic Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) there had been a Life in English since 1644, with a catalogue of his writings, and since then translations of some of the writings themselves had appeared at intervals, mostly from the shop of one publisher, Humphrey Blunden.  The interest in “the Teutonical Philosopher” thus excited had at length taken form in a small sect of professed BOEHMENISTS, propounding the doctrine of the Light of Nature, i.e. of a mystic intuitional revelation in the soul itself of all true knowledge of divine and human things.  Of this sect Baxter says that they were “fewer in number,” and seemed