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John Saddington (c1634?–1679) was a Muggletonian writer and London sugar merchant, originally from Arnesby in Leicestershire. There is a village called Saddington in Leicestershire.〔()〕 ==Spiritual journey== John Saddington was popularly known as Saddington the Tall〔he features as such in one of the Muggletonian songs. ''Divine songs of the Muggletonians'' Clerkenwell: Joseph Frost 1829〕 and was noted for his striking good looks. He says〔John Saddington ''A Prospective-glass for Saints and Sinners'' first published 1673. Reprinted Deal: J. May (1823) General Epistle (first introduction of two, not paginated)〕 that as a child he delved into books at every opportunity. His family were of the Presbyterian faith. He became unsettled when, as an eighteen-year-old, he read a book called ''A sword troubled, or, The Terror of Tythes'' in which ministers who took tithes were criticised as "oppressors of the poor and robbers of God." He says, "I was lost in myself as these ministers in whom I put my trust were such as took tythes." After that, "the assurance of my salvation was all I looked after." Yet neither Presbyterian, Independent nor Baptist satisfied him. He admits he would have been persuaded by the Quakers if he had heard of them first but he later rejected them because "they will not acknowledge the resurrection of the body of Christ." He first heard of John Reeve and Lodowicke Muggleton from an apprentice friend who had met the pair in Bridewell gaol.〔This would have been 1653 or 1654. John Reeve and Lodowicke Muggleton were serving six months under the Blasphemy Act 1650.〕 He borrowed a copy of John Reeve's ''A Transcendent Spirituall Treatise'' and was convinced. He seems to have been one of the first adherents to the Muggletonian faith and, as a consequence, liked to style himself "the eldest son of the Commission of the Spirit" and "An Ancient Believer". Certainly, he was one of the most loyal of believers and spoke out on behalf of Muggleton's point of view during the rebellion of 'The Nine Assertions', engineered by William Medgate, a London scrivener, from January 1671. Muggleton was unable to defend himself as he was on the run from an arrest warrant and living in hiding amongst the watermen of Wapping. The revolt was about Nine Assertions, said by William Medgate to have been made by Lodowicke Muggleton, and which were thought to deviate from the true prophecy revealed to John Reeve. Reeve and Muggleton were believed to be the Two Last Witnesses mentioned in the Book of Revelation 11:3 but only Reeve had received his commission from the voice of God. So it was always arguable whether there were two equal prophets or only one fully commissioned prophet, John Reeve. The nine assertions might be thought to boil down to only one (that's certainly the way Muggleton looked at it) which concerned Muggleton's insistence that God takes no notice of everyday goings-on in this world. This idea is not found explicitly in any of John Reeve's writings. In fact, everything John Reeve said pointed in the opposite direction. "Nothing comes by chance or fortune, but all through or by the providential choice of the most high."〔William Lamont ''The Last Witnesses'' Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing (2006) p. 131〕 Muggleton was quite candid about the situation. He said that although John Reeve was generally infallible in matters of doctrine, he was only human and could sometimes get things confused. This was one of those things and John Reeve had accepted Muggleton's correction. But we only have Muggleton's word for that. The idea about immediate notice (or the lack of it) was not originally Muggleton's. It was first written about by Laurence Clarkson. It perhaps strengthened Muggleton's hand that someone who might have been expected to follow John Reeve was so emphatically in-line with Muggleton on the issue. And it is why John Saddington started to write books. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Saddington」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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