John Saddington

This book can be seen in two ways which are by no means mutually exclusive. Firstly, it is one of the few Muggletonian books addressed to non-believers. (If one accepts the view that Muggletonians had principled objections to evangelism, then Saddington's book should never have existed at all.) Saddington is well equipped to write a popular book. He has a bright, journalistic style which is appealing and, above all, he couches his comments in the everyday experience of urban tradesmen and housewives and does not begin from bible doctrine. The main text is preceded by two introductions, one to his fellow believers and one, a 'General Epistle', addressed to the 'Courteous Reader'. Secondly, it is in the address to the believers that he puts the frequently asked question 'why did I write this book?' but he never truly answers himself. It is as if he wants the Muggletonian reader to stop, consider, then tease out a deeper meaning of his or her own. When he does finally answer a question, it is the different one of why he has not written the book earlier. His reasons are that he saw little need to write whilst there was still a live prophet amongst them and because, if he wrote, he had to make reference to his own experience which he felt reluctant to do. Just what this experience was that might make his fellow believers question if he were a fit and proper person to exhort them to righteousness, he naturally doesn't say. Clearly, if we don't know, we don't need to know. And we don't. So time has healed his wound. But the prophet Muggleton was still alive when Saddington wrote his book, so what had really changed?

The choice of content for the book is partially influenced by events that were recent to its time of writing, notably the rebellion led by William Medgate over whether God took any notice of everyday affairs on earth. Those who championed a positive response tended to privilege John Reeve and to allege that it was Lodowicke Muggleton who was introducing new and erroneous ideas of his own fancy. They drew attention to the consequences of the dispute, especially that if God took no notice there was no court of appeal against Muggleton's supreme authority. The prophet was all-powerful and he was misusing his powers in antinomian ways. They criticised the idea that the prophet's favour could uphold a man even though he sins.[11]

Muggleton said eight of the assertions were merely misreadings of his position and only one, the immediate notice argument, had to be confronted. To that, Muggleton's simple answer was that if people only obey the law from fear of being caught and punished then there is no honesty in the matter. The law is not written externally in books but inside everyone's own heart. "Compliance based upon fear is no moral position at all," says Professor Lamont, who believes, "It is no exaggeration to say that his answer anticipates the Kantian doctrine of the autonomy of ethics."[12]

Many critics of the Muggletonian faith did think it inconsistent to say that God takes no notice of the world yet a sentence of God's eternal damnation could be pronounced by the prophet in the expectation of some rapid confirmation of the effects of the cursing for all to see. Edward Delamaine, the Baptist brother of the Muggletonian tobacco merchant Alexander Delamaine, made exactly this point. Muggleton cursed him.

But does Muggleton's answer mean that people can be saved by their own efforts? Not at all. Those in whom the seed of the serpent predominates will find that all their well-meaning efforts will prove ineffectual. This is the seed-corn falling on stony ground. But this defence, in its turn, brings back all the old charges of Ranterism – that a sin is no sin if the intentions are pure, which is not what Muggleton wanted to say at all.

These problems are what Saddington had to cope with. It was not simply a matter of summarising uncontested principles. How does he go about it?

John Saddington grounds his book, not in theology, but in the everyday concerns of urban life. He describes the mistakes people make: by alternating fits of hard work with spells of lethargy, of failing to put something by for hard times, of becoming a burden to others in old age, of working so hard whilst young that they decay before their time, and of working flat-out during the week so they are fit only to waste their money down the pub at weekends. Few tradesmen or their families would fail to recognise something in this sad catalogue. On page 42, John Saddington reminisces his own ups and downs. "Again, it is not the earning of a great deal of money in a day, or a week, that causes a man and his family to live comfortably, but the well managing of what he getteth, this I know by experience."

The choice is no stylistic quirk. It is central to his understanding of the Muggletonian message. On this earth, the elect are far from perfect. They sin and sin again. This frailty is because the seed of the serpent is always mixed in with the seed of faith. What is amiss with all this sin is not that it infringes a written law but that it disturbs the inner peace of the believer. Good conduct, then, does matter. And or this reason, Muggletonian beliefs can never fairly be called antinomian.

All sin is not equal; the elect sinner differs from the reprobate sinner. According to Saddington, Jesus died so that the sins of the elect should not permanently count against them. (p. 59) The believer's inner peace, although disturbed by sin and possibly rocked to the core by its misery, is never destroyed by it. What is present in Saddington's work, and which passed John Reeve by, is that the Jesus who shared our human predicament did so as redeemer. Man and redeemer are not two aspects of the same divine activity. The one is precisely the other.

This redemption makes each elect person a free-born man or woman. This right is undeniable and irrevocable. This is not a complacent consolation. It is a right to see reality differently once superficiality has been shrugged off. What is revealed, only believers can see. As for the remnant; the heart of this people is fat. They have eyes, not that they may see, but they may be lulled into never questioning. For Muggletonians, faith is never grounded in reason.

Right conduct preserves a middle way of inner harmony and psychic balance. The pleasures of the world are not to be avoided and condemned but they are to be seen for what they are: here "but for a season". (p. 38) Inner harmony is a foretaste of paradise to come. (p. 35)

When "the peace of a man's mind is broken and he hath no more liberty and freedom in his mind to mind the glorious things of eternity," (p. 46) then, "to steal he is afraid, to beg he is ashamed, his credit is so bad nobody will trust him and in this condition there can be no peace." (p. 47) "I know it is the heart God mindeth, not the outward appearance." (p. 58)

Distractions from inner peace are poverty, wealth and position. Anyone who seeks honour in this world cannot remain committed to the faith because the great and good will insist upon a change of ways. (p. 33) He quotes the example of Nicodemus, who must come by night. (p. 41) And those who strive for greatness will draw down upon themselves the causes of their undoing in the form of the envy and malice of others who seek their place. (p. 35) Hence, the Witnesses are not accepted by the people because the people see they are not accepted by the rulers. (p. 41) But poverty is naturally an even greater distraction. Saddington rejects the instruction to "take no care for tomorrow but let the day bring forth for itself" as being suitable only to the Apostles. (p. 45)

John Saddington deals extensively with the matter of God's appearances on this earth. He maintains these give clear evidence that God is not an infinite spirit capable of being in all earthly places at once. (p. 88) He gives supporting examples of God's appearing in the garden and asking, "where art thou, Adam?", God putting Moses in the cleft of the rock as he passes by, and God's appearance to Moses in the 'burning bush'. "Always where God is, that place is holy." (p. 89) He also answers, he believes, an objection of Psalm 139, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I fly from thy presence?" by saying this refers to 'God's watchman' (the law written in our hearts) which no one can escape. (p. 91) Conversely, the singular appearances of God on this earth show that there is not a divine presence other than at extraordinary times. He cites Melchizedek as one such divine appearance and the third 'angel' to come to Abraham when only two go on to Sodom. (p. 98)

Lastly, with reference to events that had only recently preceded his book, he says it is not enough to believe the doctrines, we have to believe in the prophets' commission, too.