An exact collection of many wonderful prophecies relating to the government of England &c. since the first year of the reign of King James I to this present time all which have been truly fulfilled and accomplished : also ... foretelling what government is to succeed to make this kingdom happy : with the certain time of the downfal of Antichrist throughout the world / written and published ... by P.C.

Author: P. C.1689

COLLECTION Of many Wonderful PROPHESIES Relating to the Government of England, &c. Since the First Year of the REIGN of King JAMES I To this present Time.

All which have been truly Fulfilled and Accomplished.

ALSO Of many PROPHESIES, yet foretelling what Government is to Succeed to make this Kingdom happy: With the certain Time of the Downfal of ANTICHRIST throughout the World.

Written and Published in the Years, 1623, 1628, 1641, 1647, and 1660.

With many Special Remarks on the same, and on the Several Changes of Government.

By P. C. M. D. a Lover of Religion and his Country.

Dedicated to the LORDS and COMMONS now Assembled.

LONDON, Printed for Thomas Salusbury at the Sign of the Temple, near Temple-Bar. 1689.

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SEveral Discourses and Characters, Addressed to the Ladies of the Age. Wherein the Vanities of the Modish Women are discovered. Written at the Request of a Lady, by a Person of Honour. Printed for Thomas Salusbury, at the Sign of the Temple, next to the Inner Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, 1689.

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To the Right Honourable the LORDS Spiritual and Temporal, and the House of Commons Assembled in this present Convention.

THE following Poem containing several remarkable Prophesies of what has happened for several Ages past, with Directions and Assurances of what must succeed to make this Kingdom happy; which Business being at present under Your joint Consideration, I thought it expedient to Dedicate these Lines to Your Honours; which, if perused, I doubt not may be both acceptable and useful, and is the only Reason that it is published, hoping the Success may be according to the earnest Desire of a Lover of Religion and his Country.

P. C.

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To the Reader.

THE ensuing Prophesies being of great use in this present Conjuncture, I thought it not amiss to expose them for the publick Benefit, which all true English Men desire should be setled under a happy Government, without Personal Interest, and will certainly be effected according to the Purport of this Poem; the Author having had the said Revelations from God so many several Years before they were acted, which are past, as also those that succeed, as may appear by the several Dates when they were exposed by the said Author, and I hope will be now acceptable to all that love their Religion and Country, and are Enemies of Antichrist and his Adherents.

Farewel.

[Page 1] AN EXACT COLLECTION Of many Wonderful PROPHESIES Relating to the Government of England, &c.

This was Printed in the Year 1623.

AND since Men wandring in a Wood by Night,
When they shall through a Glade behold some light,
Take thereby Courage to walk chearly on,
In hope their Fears and Toyls are nearly gone.
I'le from a Cloud flash out a little Gleam
Of Lightning, and disclose a little Beam;
Whereby on you a Glimmering shall be cast
Of what you may attain to at the last.
For I will shew you by what Pedegree
That Government to you deriv'd shall be,
[Page 2] Which will at last the British Islands bless
With Inward Peace and Outward Happiness:
It was of late a brief Presage of his
Who oft hath Truth foretold, and it is this.

WHen here M. Charles I. raised Money, viz. Ship-mo­ney and Loan-money, with­out a Parlia­ment.
a Scot shall think his Throne to set
Above the Circle of a British King,
He shall a The long Parliament, whom the K. granted to fit until they should put a Period to their own Sitting.
Dateless Parliament beget,
From whence a The Army.
Dreadful Armed Brood shall spring.
This Off-spring shall beget a wild Confusion;
Confusion shall an K. Charles's Death.
Anarchy beget:
That Anarchy shall bring forth in Conclusion
A Ol. Cromwel L. Protector.
Creature that you have no Name for yet.
This Creature shall conceive a sickly State,
Which will an When Rich. Cromwel was deposed,
Aristocracy produce:
The many Headed Beast, not liking that,
To raise Democracy shall rather choose.
And then Democracy's Production shall
A The Com­mittee of Safe­ty, where hap­pen'd so great a Confusion be­tween Lam­bert, Fleetwood Hazelrig, Len­thal, Sir Hen. Vane, &c. that none knew who was up­permost, all aiming to be chief.
Moon-calfe be, Which some a Mole do call;
A false Conception of imperfect Nature,
And of a shapeless and a brutish Feature.
For these Descents shall live and reign together,
So acting for a while, that few shall know
[Page 3]Which of them has the Sovereignty, or whether
There be among them a Supream or no.
When they with Jars and Janglings have defac'd
Your Our Govern­ment of King, Lords, and Commons.
Triple Building, and themselves nigh worn
Into Contempt, they of one Cup shall tast,
And into their All to private men again.
first Elements return.
Five af them Five Com­missioners or Generals were appointed by the Army for the Govern­ment thereof▪ and Five by the Rump Par­liament, of which last Monk was chief, who act­ing distinct from the other four, carried the matter, & brought in K. Charles the Second.
 shall subdue the other Five;
And then those Five shall, in a doubtful Strife
Each others Death so happily contrive,
That they shall dye to live a better Life;
And out of their Corruption rise there shall
A King Charles the Second his Reign.
true Supream, acknowledged by all:
In whom the Power of all the Five shall be,
With Unity, made visible in Three.
Prince, People, Parliamen, with Priests and Peers,
Shall be a while your emulous Grandees,
Make a confused Pentarchy some Years,
And leave off their distinct Claims by degrees.
And then shall Righteousness ascend the Throne,
Then Truth and Love and Peace re-enter shall,
Then Faith and Reason shall agree in one,
And all the Virtues to their Council call.
And timely out of all these shall arise
That Kingdom and that happy Government,
[Page 4]Which is the Scope of all those Prophesies
That future Truths obscurely represent.
But how this done shall be, few Men shall see;
For wrought in Clouds and Darkness it will be:
And e're it come to pass to publick View,
Most of 10 Signs to forerun this happy State.
these following Signs must first ensue.

A K. James the Second.
King shall willingly himself unking,
And thereby An Apology follows for this Expression.
Grow far greater than before.
The This is now acting.
Priests their Priesthood to Contempt shall bring,
And Piety thereby shall thrive the more.
A The last Par­liament at Oxford.
Parliament it self shall overthrow,
And thereby shall a better Being gain.
The This is now, when the Peers decline the Kings Interest, and joyn with the People.
Peers, by setting of themselves below,
A more Ennobling Honour shall obtain.
The This has been under the late Go­vernments.
People for a time shall be enslav'd;
But that shall make them for the future free.
By The King's Loss.
Private Loss the Publick shall be sav'd.
An The King's Army.
Army shall, by yeilding, Victor be.
The This hap­pened upon the Chamber of London be­ing broke, and the Charter seized, &c.
Cities Wealth her Poverty shall cause.
The Laws Corruption shall reform the Laws.
And Improve­ments by Clo­ver Seed in the West of Eng­land, which was before ve­ry barren.
Bullocks of the largest Northern Breed
Shall fatted be where now scarce Sheep can feed.
[Page 5]You may perhaps deride what's here recited,
As heretofore you other Truths have slighted;
But some of my Presage you have beheld
Already in obscurity fulfill'd:
The rest shall in its time appointed come,
And sooner than will pleasing be to some.
The Priests, Par­liaments,  [...], Peers, People, Army, &c.
last Nine Signs or Symptoms of the Ten,
Which should precede them, shall appear to men
Of all Conditions; but our Author saith,
The the King willingly to unking him­self.
first is but in Hope, not yet in Faith,
And may be, or not be; for so or so
That King James the Second.
King shall have his Lot as he shall do.
If all his Sins he heartily repent,
God will remit even all his Punishment,
And him unto his Peoples Hearts restore,
With greater Honour than he had before.
If he remain impenitent, like Saul
God from the Throne shall cast both him and all
His whole Descent, and leave him not a Man
To fill it, though he had a Jonathan ▪
If Ahab-like his Mourning has respects
To temporary Losses or Effects,
Like Ahab then it therewithal shall carry
Some Benefit, which is but temporary.
[Page 6]A real Penitence, thô somewhat late,
The Rigour of his Doom may much abate,
By leaving him a part of what he had.
When he a Forfeiture of all hath made;
Or else by Lord Chan­cellor, Judges, &c.
Rooting out those who in Sin
With him have actually Partakers been;
And placing in their steads a (i. e.) of the King's.
Branch of his,
Whose Innocency no way question'd is.

[Page 7]

This was Printed in the Year 1628.

GOD hath a Controversie with our Land;
And in an evil Plight Affairs do stand:
And though we always smart for doing ill,
Yet us the hand of God afflicteth still;
And many see it not, as many be
So wilful, that his Hand they will not see.
Some plainly view the same, but nothing care.
Some at the sight thereof amazed are,
Like Belteshazar, have a trembling Heart,
But will not from their Wickedness depart.
Some dream that all things do by Chance succeed,
And that I prate more of them than I need.
But Heaven and Earth to Witness I invoke,
That nothing causlesly I here have spoke.

If this, O! sickly Island, thou believe,
And for thy great Infirmities shalt grieve,
And knowing of thy Follies, make Confessions,
And then bewail thine infinite Transgressions,
[Page 8]And then amend those Errors, God shall then
Thy manifold Distempers cure again,
Make all thy Scarlet Sins as white as Snow,
And cast thy threatned Judgment on thy Foe.
But if thou, fondly thinking thou art well,
Shalt slight this Message which my Muse doth tell,
And scorn her Counsel; if thou shalt not rue
Thy former ways, but frowardly persue
Thy wilful Course, then hark what I am bold
(In spite of all thy madness) to unfold:
For I will tell thy Fortune, which when they
That are unborn shall read another day,
They shall believe God's Mercy did infuse
Thy Poet's Breast with a Prophetick Muse;
And know that he This Author did prefer,
To be, from him, this Isles Remembrancer.

—This Land shall breed This is effe­cted since the Restauration.
a nasty Generation,
Unworthy either of the Reputation
Or Name of Men; for they, as Lice, shall feed
Even on the Body whence they did proceed.
There shall moreover Swarms of divers Flies
Engendred be in thy Prosperities,
[Page 9]To be a Plague, and still are humming so,
As if they meant some weighty Work to do;
Whenas upon the common Stock they spend,
And nought perform of what they do pretend.

Then shall Popery in King James the Second's Reign.
 a Darkness follow, far more black
Than when the Light Corporeal thou dost lack.
For grossest Ignorance, oreshadowing all,
Shall in so thick a darkness thee enthrall,
That thou a blockish People shalt be made,
Still wandring on in a deceiving Shade;
Mistrusting those that safest Paths are shewing,
Most trusting them who Counsel thy undoing;
And aye tormented be with doubts and Fears,
As one who Outcries in dark places hears.
Nor shall the Hand of God from thee return,
Till he hath also smote thine Eldest Born;
That is, till he hath taken from thee quite
Ev'n that whereon thou sett'st thine whole delight;
And filled every House throughout the Nation
With Several put to death, both here and in the West, about the Duke of Monmouth's Plot.
Deaths unlooked for and Lamentation.
So great shall be thy Ruin and thy Shame,
That when thy Neighbouring Kingdoms hear the same,
[Page 10]Their Ears shall tingle; and when that day comes,
In which thy Follies must receive their Dooms,
A day of Clouds, a day of Gloominess,
A day of black Despair and Heaviness
It will appear; And then thy Vanities,
Thy Gold and Silver, thy Confederacies,
And all those Reeds, on which thou hast depended,
Will fail thy Trust, and leave thee unbefriended.
Thy In time of the Popish Plot.
King, thy Priests, and Prophets then shall mourn,
And peradventure feignedly return,
To beg of God to succour them; but they
Who will not hearken to his Voice to day
Shall cry unheeded, and he will despise
Their Vows, their Prayers, and their Sacrifice.
A Sea of Troubles all thy Hopes shall swallow;
As Wave on Wave, so Plague on Plague shall follow:
And every thing that was a Blessing to thee
Shall turn to be a Curse to help undo thee.
And when thy Sin is fully ripe in thee,
Thy The Reign of these two last Kings.
Prince and People then alike shall be;
Thou shalt have Babes to be thy Kings, or worse,
Those Tyrants who by Cruelty and Force
Shall take away the antient Charters quite
From all their Subjects, yea, themselves delight
[Page 11]In their Vexation; and all those that are
Made Slaves thereby shall murmur, yet not dare
To stir against them. By degrees they shall
Deprive thee of thy Patrimonials all;
Compel thee, as in other Lands this day,
For thine own Meat and thine own Drink to pay;
And at the last begin to exercise
Upon thy Sons all heathenish Tyrannies,
As just Prerogatives: To these Intents
Thy Nobles shall become their Instruments.
For they who had their Births As Oxford, Clarendon, Bedford, &c.
from noble Races
Shall some and some be brought into Disgraces;
From Offices they shall excluded stand,
And all their virtuous Offspring from the Land
Shall quite be worn: Instead of whom shall rise
AAs Jefferies, &c.
Brood advanced by Impieties,
That seek how they more great and strong may grow,
By compassing the Publick Overthrow.
These shall abuse thy Kings with Tales and Lyes,
With seeming Love and servile Flatteries;
They shall persuade them, they have Power to make
Their Wills their Law, and as they please to take
Their Peoples Goods, their Children and their Lives,
Ev'n by their just and due Prerogatives.
[Page 12]When thus much they have made them to believe,
Then they shall teach them Practices to grieve
Their Subjects by, and Instruments become,
To help the Screwing up by some and some
Of Monarchies to Tyrannies: They shall
Abuse Religion, Honesty, and all
To compass their Designs they shall devise
Ecclesiasti­cal Commis­sion.
Strange Projects, and with Impudence and Lyes
Proceed in setling them; they shall forget
Those reverend Usages which do befit
The Majesty of State, and rail and storm,
When they pretend Disorders to reform
In their The Privy Council.
High Councils; and where Men should have
Kind Admonitions, and Reprovings grave,
When they offend, they shall be threatned there,
And scoft and taunted, thô no Cause appear.
Whatever from thy People they can tear,
Or borrow, they shall keep, as if it were
A Prize which had been taken from the Foe,
And they shall make no Conscience what they do
To prejudice Posterity; for They,
To gain their Lusts but for the present day,
Shall with such Love unto themselves endeavour,
That thô they know it will undo for ever
[Page 13]Their own Posterity, it shall not make
These Monsters any better Course to take.
Nay, God shall give them up, for their Offences,
To such uncomly reprobated Senses,
And blind them so, that when the Ax they see
Even hewing at the Root of their own Tree,
By their own handy Stroaks, They shall not grieve
For their approaching Fall; no; nor believe
Their Fall approacheth, nor assume that heed,
Which might prevent it, till they fall indeed.

Mark well, O! Britain, what I now shall say,
And do not slightly pass these Words away;
But be assured, That when God begins
To bring this Vengeance on thee for thy Sins,
Which hazard will thy total Overthrow,
Thy Prophets and thy Priests shall slily sow
The Seeds of that Dissention and Sedition,
Which Time will ripen for thy said Perdition;
But not unless the Priests thereto consent:
For in those days shall few Men innocent
Be griev'd through any Quarter of the Land,
In which thy Oxford, Che­ster, Durham, &c.
Clergy shall not have some hand.
[Page 14]Thy  [...] Fire of  [...] City of  [...]don.
Cities and thy Palaces, wherein
Most Neatness and Magnificence hath been,
Shall heaps of Rubbish be. —
Instead of Lyons Mayors and  [...]riffs and  [...]tices in the  [...]ntry.
Tyrants thou shalt breed,
Who nor of Law nor Conscience shall take heed;
But on the weak Man's Portion lay their Paw▪
And make their Pleasures to become their Law.
Thy  [...]udges.
Judges wilfully shall wrest the Laws,
And, to the Ruin of the common Cause,
Shall misinterpret them, in hope of Grace
From those who might despoil them of their place.
Yea, that whereto they are obliged both
By Conscience, by their Calling, and their Oath,
To put in Execution, they shall fear,
And leave them helpless who oppressed are.

[Page 15]

This was Dedicated to the City of LONDON, in the Year 1647.

THough I have Written heretofore in vain,
And may do now, yet I will write again,
In hope that what, by Reason and by Rhime,
Was not effected, may be done in time;
And that although my Pains be lost to some,
It may not fruitless unto all become.

Behold that which was coming long ago
Draws now so near, that none shall need foreshew
What at the last will thereupon ensue;
For we without a Glass may plainly view
Such things in Kenning, that unless our God
To them shall please to put a Period;
Or make some such Diversion as no Man
Conjecture of by any Symptome can,
An universal Plague will on us seize,
Instead of Remedies for our Disease.
[Page 16]Have you not yet discover'd, who be they
That cheat you, and for whom this Game you play,
By your Divisions; and when others find
Their Falshood for you, will you still be blind?
Or wink, as careless of the things you heed,
Till by long winking you grow blind indeed?
Cannot you yet discover, through the Mist,
These Jugglings which the Popish Priests.
Spawn of Anti-Christ,
False Priests and lying Prophets practise now,
To raise themselves and work your Overthrow;
Nor with what Impudence they publish Lyes,
Their bitter Jeerings, and their Blasphemies,
To make new Breaches, or to widen those
Which Love and Prudency began to close;
And which ere this time closed up had been,
Had they not cast intempered Dirt between?

Have you concluded never to retire,
In your Career, till  [...] of London.
all is on a Fire;
And you and yours lie sprawling in the Plashes
Of your own Blood, and in your City Ashes;
And till you see this goodly stately Frame,
The Work of many Ages, in a Flame?

[Page 17]

Withers's Prophesie OF THE DOWNFALL OF ANTICHRIST. Published Anno 1644.

THat Year in which Romes long-liv'd Emperie
Shall, from the Day in which it was at height,
Sum up MDCLXV and I,
In Order as these Letters do incite,
That Year, that Day, that Hour, will put a Date
To her usurped Power, reserving neither
Top, Root, or Branch, of that accursed State,
Nor Hand or Body, Limb, Horn, Claw or Feather;
For here are all the Numerals of Rome,
And cannot make a less or greater Sum,
Without Disorder, Want, or Iteration.
[Page 18]Nor shall it longer stand, or sooner fall,
If I mistake not him, who Governs all.

Two famous Numbers are in them contain'd;
The first declares the length of time, wherein
The The Devil bound a thou­sand Years in the Revela­tions.
Devil was by Providence restrain'd
From setting up that Mystery of Sin.
The Later is the Number of the Beast,
Which, when the Let was taken quite away,
Whereby he was a Thousand Years supprest,
Doth number out his Kingdom to a Day.
It is the Number of the Name or Power
Even of a Man, of that mysterious Man,
By whom that Mystery is to this hour
Continu'd, and by whom it first began.
And he that can begin the Thousandth Year,
Shall find the Ruin of both Beasts are near.
To search that out, it seems not hard to me,
Who do believe that when of her chief Sin.
Rome to be Guilty did appear to be,
Her Declination did ev'n then begin.
And sure of all her Sins the greatest Crime
Was Crucifying of the Lord of Life;
[Page 19]And her unjustly persecuting them
Who tendred saving Grace to their Belief.
Then I presume she first to fall began,
And that God measur'd, weigh'd, and number'd out,
How many backward Rounds her Wheel should Run,
Before it should the last time run about.
Thus in those Numerals which are her own,
Joyn'd altogether was her Fate writ down.
To bring to pass that Work there was a Let
To be remov'd, of no mean Consequence,
Which was removed at the time foreset;
And her new This Beast to Reign 666 Years.
Off-spring hath Reign'd ever since.
But with exceeding Infamy and Scorns,
The Beast which now so powerful seems to some,
Shall lose his Head, and molt away his Horns,
And to the World a Laughing-stock become.

Then many Jugglings hitherto conceal'd,
And which, to blind the heedless Christian's Eye,
In seven dark Mysteries have long been seal'd,
Shall to the faithful Soul uncover'd lie.
That Kingdom which the Jew did long ago
Mould out according to his erring Brain,
[Page 20]And whereof many zealous Christians too
Unwarrantable Fancies entertain.
That Kingdom, whereof now in Types we hear,
Shall to the World essentially appear.

Be patient therefore, ye that are opprest;
This Generation shall not pass away,
Till some behold the Downfal of that Beast
Which yet among us with his Tail doth play.
Then will the Lamb of God begin to take
The Kingdom to himself, and every King,
That of his Right shall Usurpation make,
To Judgment and Destruction he shall bring.
No Kingling then assume the boldness shall,
Blasphemously (for know it is no less)
To style himself the King Catholical,
As if Earths universal Globe were his.
For thô another hath usurp'd thereon,
That Title doth belong to Christ alone.

And 'tis no wonder, if the Potentates,
Kings, and the Rulers of the World combine
By Policy to strengthen their Estates,
And with the Beast, with Gog and Magog joyn.
[Page 21]No Marvel, if enraged they appear,
Through Jealousies and Fears of losing that
By which their Pride and lust maintained were,
And which base Fear and Flattery first begat.
For all those Kingdoms, and those Emperies,
Throughout the World, which their beginnings took
By human Wit, Fraud, Force, and Tyrannies,
Shall pass away, and vanish into Smoke.

Prince of Orange's Army.

Army, whereof yet there's little hope,

Shall wrest the Scepter both from Turk and Pope.

Religion, and mere Shews of Piety,
Have been so long the Mask of base Designs;
The great Kings.
Vicegerents of their Deity
Have made such Polititians of Divines,
And these together have so fool'd and cheated
The Consciences of Persons well enclin'd,
That of all Freedoms men are nigh defeated,
Belonging to the Body or the Mind.
Yea, they have so mockt God, and on his Throne
And his Prerogative so far encroach,
That of his Honour being jealous grown,
Much longer bear he will not such Reproach;
[Page 22]But to the Saints their Liberties restore,
And give those Kings their Portions with the Whore.
D'ye startle at it, as if I had spoke
High Treason, or as if what I now say,
Without a Warrant I had undertook
To Publish, as perhaps you think I may.

[Page 23]

George Withers HIS PROPHESIE, OF THE Downfall of ANTICHRIST. Published Anno 1660.

AND if, by Storm, they take my Life away,
Which I as little do regard as they;
It in their Souls may leave a Sting behind it,
Which will, with Torment, make them sometimes mind it.

But here I yet remain, and, for a Close,
In reference to our Antichristian Foes,
I'le add this Corollary by the way,
Whilst, on his Horns, the Beast is tossing Hay:
For if deceiv'd I am not, our Disease
Chiefly proceedeth underhand from these.
[Page 24]And though a further-off removed Cause,
Pretending they bescratch us with the Paws
Of other Beasts, it plainly may be seen.
By whom our Troubles have contrived been.
I therefore make but a defensive War,
With such as mine own Adversaries are.
And to his Captains, as th' Assyrian King,
Once gave Command, intend no Dart to fling,
To be Destructive to Men, Great or Small,
Whose Hate to me is only Personal;
But as those only, whose Hate doth extend
To him, and his, on whom I do depend.

At the Restau­ration, Popery came in.
To act their last Scene, which precedes their Doom,
They now, new vampt, upon the Stage are come.
And thô, that with the King, as if his Friends,
They seem to side, they come to other Ends;
Which he, not yet discerning, in his Grace
Vouchsafes them a considerable place:
And of prevailing, they already boast,
As if they saw the Lamb, and all his Host
Quite overthrown, which me as confident
Hath made, that God their proud Hope will prevent,
[Page 25]And overthrow that Tyranny outright,
By what they think shall raise it to its height.
But many Tryals must the Saints abide,
And very much their Patience will be try'd,
Here and elsewhere, before that Act is done,
Which with an Antimask is now begun.
Our Friends inhabiting beyond the Waters,
And who were of our Tragedies Spectators
Now twenty Years, though they perceive it not,
Or seem not to perceive it, in that Lot,
Which these have cast for us, designed are,
Or in what follows next to have a share:
For Haman's Pur's on foot, not only here,
But likewise almost every other where;
And these think, that to take them by his Gin
With some speed, is with us first to begin.

But there's a Countermine which will be sprung,
Will blow up them, and all their Mines, e're long.
Six hundred sixty six draws on apace,
And not one day beyond that shall they pass.
It is the Number of that Man of Sin,
Whereto his Kingdom hath confined been
[Page 26]By him that cannot lye; and long ago
To many that Epocha I did shew,
From whence his Reign begins, and by a Light,
As I believe, which shines without Deceit,
It numbers out his Reign, as certainly
As Women reckon the Nativity
Of Children in their Wombs, which hath Success
Within a very few days, more or less.
And of that Mystery what heretofore
I have exprest, I'le here express once more,
Because those Notions which may much be needed,
Cannot be too oft told, nor too well heeded.

To former times this Mystery was dark,
And lay a long while cover'd, like a Spark
In Ashes, lest perhaps what at this time
Will comfort us, might have discourag'd them,
Who lived then; For Men rejoyce to hear
The day of their Deliverance is near.
But nothing, save Discomfort, could they gain▪
By knowing Tyranny so long should Reign.
Herein I circumstantially perchance
May somwhat Err, through human Ignorance;
[Page 27]But as to that which was essentially
To us intended by this Mystery,
I shall not fail of, which is to presage,
That Babylon shall fall in this our Age.
Seven Numerals the Roman Empire had,
By which of old they Computations made;
And in them was their Destiny foreshewn,
Thô to themselves perhaps it was unknown.
These placed singly, as they valu'd are,
Do truly, thô mysteriously, declare,
How long that Empire, with what sprung therefrom,
Should last, when to the full height it was come.

For MDCLX, with V and I,
Do number up, in Chronogrammistry,
Years sixteen hundred sixty six, and that
Will be of Roman Tyrannies the Date.
No other Number, either more or less,
If none of these you double or displace,
Can be by them exprest: If you ask, when
This Number did begin, I say ev'n then
When Rome declin'd first from her height of Pride,
Which was when Jesus Christ was Crucifi'd.
[Page 28]For at that Time her Glory did abate;
This Number therefore you must Calculate
From, or about, the known time of Christ's Passion,
Not from the first day of his Incarnation:
A Silence (as it were) seem'd to have been
In Heaven, during th' Interval between
His Death and his Ascention, as if caus'd,
By seeing that done, which had much amaz'd
The whole Creation, when that they did see
The Lord of Life hang dead upon a Tree.
The Devil probably, at that time too,
Was at a stand, and knew not what to do;
But soon perceiving, That the Snare he wrought
Was broke, to make another straight he sought:
Which to prevent▪ an Angel, in a Chain,
His other Pow'rs him suffering to retain,
Did, for a Thousand Years, restrain the Devil
From setting up the Mystery of Evil,
Which in Paul's time he was at work upon;
But when those Thousand Years were fully gone,
He rais'd it up, and God permitted him.
To manage his own Engine for a time;
[Page 29]That Truth and Error might here for a space
Make Tryals of their Strength, and that each Grace
And Virtue of the Saints, by Exercise,
Improv'd might be to fit them for the Prize,
Prepar'd for those who shall engage with Christ,
To overcome the Dragon and the Beast.

A Thousand Years sharp Tryals they withstood;
Yet then they struggled but with Flesh and Blood:
And for the most part all their Combats then
Were like St Paul's at Ephesus, with Men
Resembling Beasts: But since Iniquity
Was set up, vailed with a Mystery,
As in these later times, with greater Evils
The Saints do grasp, for they contend with Devils
In shape of Men, in Temporal Confusion,
Made terrible by Spiritual Delusion.
And therefore God allotted unto him,
Who Tyrannizeth now, a shorter time;
And to a certain day his Reign did six,
Which is Six hundred sixty Years and six:
And he who knows on what day it begun,
May know the day on which it will be done;
[Page 30]Which I believe will visibly appear,
In or about the Seventeen-hundredth Year.
And thus much therefore only to foreknow,
With how nigh to an end it seemeth now,
May make us hopeful, and our Faith uphold,
As well as if Day, Year, and Hour were told:
Yea, and it better serves to exercise
Our Constancy, than if 'twere otherwise,
And, if well heeded, peradventure may
Keep some upright, who else might fall away,
In these back-sliding days, wherein they see
The The Wound given by Lu­ther and Cal­vin, &c.
Beast's late deadly Wound nigh cur'd to be.
They on a sudden are become as Jolly,
As if they thought it to be cured wholly;
And, to impose their Mark, will now begin
To be more strict than ever they have been;
So that ere long few Men shall live in Peace,
Bear Office, or a free Estate possess,
Where they have Power, unless they The mark of the Forehead is by open Pro­fession; the mark in the hand is those who mercena­rily will be bribed to be their Drudges.
marked are
In Hand or Forehead with their Character.
But if that, whereof some imperfect Views
Far off appears, accordingly ensues,
There will, to thwart their hopes, a The blazing Star in the Year 1680, which is the only Star that ever appeared in the West.
new Star blaze
Within the West, which will the World amaze,
[Page 31]And Influences, through the Universe,
So quickly and prodigiously disperse,
That, aided by concurring Constellations,
It will have some effect upon most Nations,
And cause such Changes which will make a Stand
In those Attempts, which they have now in hand.

FINIS.

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