THAT this present Age is an Age of Wonders, I think there is no Person but will acknowledge, who does but con­sider the prodigious Revolutions which have happened in the world within the space of sixty years last past. Nor shall we need to tra­vel so far as China or Indostan, or visit the Sun­burnt Regions of Africa, to justifie the truth of this. Europe alone will suffice, having been the Theatre of such Mutations as are not the least mi­raculous; and in which, as we have had our share, so likewise a very near concern. The Great Gustavus of Sweden begun the fatal Dance, and Germany still wears the marks of those Deso­lations which were occasion'd by his Arms. Por­tugal revolts from Spain, France is over-run with Civil Broils, Great Britain and Ireland are all in flames and confusion.

Scarce had the World begun to breathe the [Page 4] gentle Air of Peace, when the aspiring Spirit of France, big with the ambitious hopes of Glo­ry, and puft up with a vain desire of the Sole Monarchy of the Western World, raises fresh Com­motions in Europe, and has set all Christendom in flames of War. What have been the Effects of these horrible Combustions are too well known already, and what will be the Issue, although we may from probability make Conjectures, God on­ly knows.

These great Changes and Revolutions which have happened in the Affairs of the World, have always been ushered in with some strange Pre­sages and Predictions; it would be tedious to re­count all the prodigious Comets, Visions, Appa­ritions, and Prophesies, which have in all Ages of the World given occasion of wonder and a­mazement to the vulgar, but of caution to the wise; to whom the consideration of present Cir­cumstances compared together, have given great advantage to conjecture of the Series of future Events, and to improve those hints both to the publick and their private good. A pregnant in­stance of which we have in Joan of Arc, to whose Prophesies the French were obliged both for Direction and Courage to clear themselves and Country of the English. Nor ought we to doubt, but that these Admonitions are the Ef­fects of Heaven's kindness, as well as the He­ralds of its anger; nor does the Divine Venge­ance act by surprisal, but always first denounces War before it begins it; though usually these Por­tents [Page 5] and Predictions meet with the same treat­ment from the incredulous World, which Noah's prophetick Sermon of 40 years whilst he was building the Ark, received from the indocile Peo­ple who inhabited the Earth before the Universal Deluge.

I know the hazzard of Interpretation, is apt to render a curiosity of this nature, culpable to some, ridiculous to others, and many times to those who are most nearly concerned in the danger; Caesar could laugh at the Predictions concerning the Fatal Ides, and the Dream of his Lady, but it proved a Risus Sardonius, which ended in Death. Did I propose any thing with a pretence of Inspi­ration, or the confidence of un-erring Infallibility, I should deserve the censure of the wise, and which is far more insupportable, the derision of the foolish; but what I offer is only as a private and probable conjecture, and I leave it to every mans liberty to judge even of that liberty I have taken, and to the Event to justifie or confute my Opi­nion.

I will not pretend a familiarity with the Stars, though I do not despise their Influences; nor will I undertake to explain the Mystical Characters of the East; nor to tell you exactly which way any of the late Comets directly pointed; nor to un­riddle all the dark Nonsence of Nostradamus; but something sure there is in all these things. And although I believe there is some Wheat in all that heap of Chaff, yet I question whether or no my Judgment be strong enough to winnow it, and [Page 6] separate one from the other. That which I here offer to the view of the Curious and Inquisitive, is a very ancient Prophesie, though not much re­garded: But who was the certain Author, I am no more able to assure them, than what will be the certain Event. However, let this suffice, that 'tis said to have been found in the Ruines of a Religious House at or near Lincoln, and given to Mr. Truswel the Recorder of that City, from whom it now borrows the Name, and goes under the Title of Mr. Truswel's Prophecy the Recorder of Lincoln. It was writ in an obscure and bar­barous Latin, which does in some measure shew the Antiquity of it, and that it was penn'd in those Ages, when Learning was at so low an Ebb, that the high Water-Mark of it, did not run a­bove a sort of Gothish Latin; all beyond which was the Hercules Pillars as they thought, with the Ne plus ultra inscribed upon them, of Graecum est non potest legi.

I do not find that this Prophesie hath been taken notice of, except by an inconsiderable and little regarded person, Arise Evans in a Book entituled, A Voice from Heaven, printed Anno 1652. and though he did strangely foretell many things, and particularly was always positive about his Ma­jesties happy Restauration, and with him of the Church of England, then trampled under foot by the prevailing Sects and Factions; yet mention­ing this Prophesie, he has both given so false a Tran­slation, and an Interpretation no less impertinent than ridiculous in some things, making the Lilly to be Mr. Lily the Astrologer, and some such things as look like the effects of a weak or shattered Brain. Nor do I remember any Conjuncture of Affairs which have been in Europe, to which this Predicti­on could possibly be applicable except the present, to which it seems plainly and perspicuously to di­rect, and to threaten France with an inevitable fall from that Glory and Prosperity which now she does seem to enjoy.

According to the manner of all Prophesies, and [Page 9] even this as well as the rest is wrapt up in a my­sterious confusion, which leaves us no more to work upon, than matter of Connexion and Conjecture: But however according to the judgment of persons much conversant in Wri­tings of this nature, there seems to be an a­greement in Opinion, that by the Son of Man who carries the wild Beasts in his Arms, is intended the King and Kingdom of Eng­land, which is so distinguishing a difference, as no other Prince besides him can pretend to the Description. And possibly he calls him, the Son of Man, with a regard to his Exile, alluding to that place in Scripture, That the Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the Air have Nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to hide his head. He ha­ving had in that extremity of his Fortune no place of security or retreat, capable to shelter him from the malice of his implacable Enemies, whilst he was hunted by them from one Kingdom to a­nother, his Reception being made a sufficient ground of War, as his Banishment was always an Article of Peace. And he seems farther to explain this, when he tells us, He shall pass many Waters. Which is both literally and prophetically true, for his present Majesty was forced for his security to pass and re-pass the Seas. But in the Figurative sense, by Waters is always in the prophetical dia­lect understood Afflictions, Instability of Fortune, Dangers and Hazards from the People. Now all the world is witness, that even from his In­fancy his Majesty of Great Britain sailed through [Page 10] a most tempestuous Ocean of Adverse Fortune.

And he shall come to the Land of the Lyon.] By the Lyon is here meant the Leo Belgicus, the Bel­gick Lyon, as the United Provinces and Spanish Netherlands, from the figure of the Country as it lies in the Maps, and from their ancient Ensigns are called, and by that Name commonly known; from both which Countries his Majesty expected Protection and Assistance, and did in some mea­sure receive it: [looking for help from the Beasts of his own Country,] that is expecting Assistances from the Scottish Nation; to some of which the Name he gives them did but too well agree, with that part of them who endeavoured to make a prey of him, as before they had done of his Royal Father. This he further explains in the fore­going words, telling us [and he shall come with a multitude of People,] which shews his Restaura­tion, and that he should come, that is, to be re­ceived with the universal desire and consent of his People into his Kingdom [which Kingdom is the Land of the Moon] either because it is sur­rounded with the water of the Ocean, over whose fluxes and re-fluxes the Moon has such absolute Soveraignty and Dominion; or to signifie the great Changes and Alterations, the ebbing and flowing of the Tydes of Faction and Rebellion which should be in that Kingdom, and especially in Ecclesiastical Affairs, of which the Moon is e­ven in Holy Prophesies not an unusual Significatrix; the Church being often figured by the Moon, as shining by a borrowed light (Luna quasi luce lu­cens [Page 11] aliena) and being frequently under great Changes and Alterations, and never more bright and conspicuous, than in the darkest nights of Persecutions. [Which Kingdom, of the Moon, is to be dreaded throughout the World,] he does not say England, which here he calls the Land of the Moon, shall have dominion over all the Earth, an Island being altogether incapable of such a de­sign or Dominion, but it shall be dreaded, which may well be understood to be meant in regard of the great Maritime Power, and Naval Exploits of the English, which has already made their name terribly known to all the world; and which is to be hoped such care will be taken to increase and incourage that Power, as well as to abate that of our Rivals and Enemies, as in future Ages shall render England not only considerable, but formi­dable to all the Earth; so as to be able, if not to give Laws, yet to hold the Great Ballance, so as to make England terrible to her Enemies; who shall therefore dread their great Naval Power, in regard of their Ability thereby to make sudden Invasions and Discents into the Maritime Coun­tries of their Enemies, and to stop their Trade and Commerce abroad.

Thus far the Prophesie appears plain and easie, Events having in a great measure given us a clear Interpretation of it. Now Affairs thus standing, the Son of Man who bears the Wild-beasts in his Arms, whose Kingdom is the Land of the Moon, which is to be dreaded throughout the World, being come through many Waters with a multitude of Peo­ple, [Page 12] he comes to discourse of the Lilly. By the Lilly they interpret France, whose Ensigns are the Lillies, as they themselves discourse it by their Salique Law, when they tell us the Lillies spin not, excluding thereby the Distaff from all hopes of enjoying the Scepter: Rather to destroy the pretensions of the English, than that they are a­ble to shew any such original and fundamental Law of their Crown. [The Lilly (saith he) shall re­main in the better part] that is, France shall be in great Peace, Glory, Plenty and Prosperity; which has been exactly verified ever since the conclusion of their last Domestick Wars, by the Policy of that great Minister of State, Cardinal Mazarin, during the minority of the present King of France, Lewis the Fourteenth; ever since which time France has enjoyed a constant current of Greatness and uninterrupted Prosperity: which as it has infinitely augmented their Trade, Navi­gation, People, and the Treasure of the Prince, into the Sea of whose Coffers all the several Streams of Money in France do finally discharge themselves; so it has elevated their minds to high Attempts; Pride being the usual Com­panion of Prosperity, and a vast Treasure the greatest spur to the thoughts of Ambitious Princes. The Lilly standing in these terms, [shall be moved against the Seed of the Lyon] that is, as before we took notice, against the United Provin­ces and Spanish Netherlands, who are altogether called the Leo Belgious, and give the Lyon for their Ensigns. This likewise needs no great matter [Page 13] of explaining, it being so visible and fresh in re­membrance, how the French began to quarrel with the Dutch: Though upon what real or solid grounds, since they never yet told the world, we are left to the liberty of our Conjectures; and may therefore judge it was the Child of their Pride and Ambition, Riches and Prosperity, with which unbounded desire of Greatness and Sove­raignty some of their late Ministers have travel­led long, and had they not strangely miscarried, 'tis more than probable they would have brought that Embrio of slavery which they had conceived in their brains, to a perfect birth.

[And he shall stand on one side amongst the Thorns of his Kingdom, whose Kingdom is the Land of the Moon] that is, at the beginning of this War be­twixt Lilly and the Lyon, England shall stand up­on the part of the Lilly against the Lion, though not without Difficulties, by reason of the Thorns of his Kingdom, by which Thorns they understand the uneasiness of his People, occasioned by this con­federation with France, by reason of their Appre­hensions of whose growing Greatness and Power both at Sea and Land, and his dangerous Vicinity they are said to stand upon Thorns, according to our English Proverb of expressing any thing which gives us a trouble, or which we cannot long en­dure: And by his adding [the Kingdom of the Moon] may further be meant, that this Confe­deration shall not be lasting, but shall change, as it has done, from Friendship, to a cold Neutrality, from Neutrality, to open and violent, because ne­cessary, [Page 14] Hostility [Then shall come the Eagle out of the East, with his wings spread with the Beams of the Son of Man.] Here is plainly decipher'd his Im­perial Majesty of Germany, whose Ensign is the Eagle displaid, and his wings being spread with the Beams of the Son of Man, denotes the Confedera­tion between England and the Empire; which Confederation shall influence, warm, and revive the drooping Spirits of the Imperial Party, adding new life to their endeavours, and fresh vigour to their enterprises, as the kind Beams of the Sun impregnates the Plants and Herbs, with a new Life and Growth. [There shall be destrdyed Castles upon the Thames.] Whether this may not have reference to the action of Chattam, or to the con­flagration of London, or to some other great Sea action, in which the English may lose some Ships (which he calls Castles upon the Thames) and which may probably happen if there be Naval Engagements with the French, I will not under­take to determine, but as before was observed, there is no method or exact order observed in these Prophetick Discourses, and I am rather inclinable to believe it does relate to the Affair of Chattam, in which the English Ships were destroyed, with the great pleasure, if not by the Instigation of France.

[There shall be great Battles among many Kings.] This is not only already verified no so many Com­bats, as during this War have happened between the Emperor, the Crowns of France, Spain, Eng­land, Sweeden and Denmark, but in great pro­bability [Page 15] that still there will be more and greater: for the Power of France is too great, to be the Trophie of one Day, and there appears no safety to any Neighbouring Crowns, but by abating the Luxury of the Lillies.

[In that Day shall be the Bloody Field,] This is spoken exegetically, as if one particular remark­able and Decissive Day, wherein shall be a most Bloody Battle, the end of which shall terminate in a most notable Victory, in which the Lilly, that is France, shall be subdued, wherewith the Son of Man shall be crowned. [In the fourth year many Battles shall be for the Faith.] This seems to inti­mate, as if during this War, and before the final conclusion of it, by the great Battle which he calls the Bloody Day, France finding her self straitned should excite the Grand Signior, the Capital Enemy of the Christian Faith, to enter into the Christian Territories, according to the Example of Francis the first of France; and the present Commotions in Hungary, supported in a probability both by the French and Ottomans underhand, render the conjecture not much void of the Mark. This War between the Christians and Turks shall conti­nue some time after the Power of France is hum­bled; and shall occasion many Battles for the Faith, that is against the Mahometans; but at last Victo­ry shall declare her self for the Christians. [Caput mundierit ad terram.] I can easily make of this better sense than Latin: The head of the World shall be brought to the Ground,] which may be meant either of the Pope or Turk, who both pre­tend [Page 16] to that Title of Ʋniversal Head; the one as Temporal and the other as Spiritual Monarch of the World; and I leave it to the Opinion of the Reader, and to Time the surest Interpreter of Pre­dictions, to declare upon which of these Heads, this Vengeance shall fall so heavy, as to lay them in the Dust.

After this, The Son of Man and the Eagle, that is the King of England and the Emperor, shall be exalted; that is, they shall be in great Honour, Dignity and Power; upon which there shall suc­ceed Universal Peace, and as the Natural Effect of it all manner of Plenty.

As for the last Clause where 'tis said, [The Son of Man shall receive a marvellous Sign, and shall go to the Land of the Cross.] I confess I want an Oe­dipus to furnish me with a Conjecture, and will not therefore undertake it; in regard that Voyage has been out of fashion with all Princes, since they understood that it was an Intrigue of Ambitious Popes to send Princes to the Holy War, whilst they in the mean time made a Prey of their Pre­rogatives and Subjects at home.

Thus far Mr. Truswel's Prophesie, which be­cause it may be thought the work of an English-man, and may therefore be supposed in favour of the Nation; let us hear a Prophet of their own, Nostradamus, the great Favourite of three Kings, Henry the 2. Francis the 2. and Charles the 9. and if he be a Prophet, he will it may be confirm the Truth of the former Predictions, applying his rugged Verses to the present Circumstances of the time.

Here are Naples, Palermo, Sicily and Siracuse, by name, threatned with new Tyrants, who should feise upon them like Lightning; which I think was most truly acted by the French, who did un­expectedly surprise Messina, and a great part of Sicily: And the famous Sea-Action of the French at Palermo, does even literally expound the Ver­ses, nothing being so like the heavenly Light­ning as the thundring Cannon, which never be­fore did so terribly enlighten the Trinacrian shore. And let the Sicilians speak, whether the French have not been great as well as new Tyrants; since that place which was wont to be the Horreum Ro­mani Imperii, the Granary of the Roman Empire, is now obliged to beg supplies from the rest of the world. But then follows [The Arms or Power of London, Ghent, Bruxels and Suse] by Suse he must mean the Empire, Susa being the Capital City of the Persian and Assyrian Monarchies, and [Page 18] it being a common blind with Nostradame, to put old Names to new things. Those Powers of England, Germany, and the Netherlands being confederated together, shall occasion a great He­catomb, that is a great slaughter, a Hecatomb be­ing a Sacrifice of an hundred Oxen; this slaugh­ter shall to the Victors glory produce a great Tri­umph and much Feasting. But you will say here is the Devil of Delphos,

Who shall be these triumphant Conquerors? I answer, that the Victory shall not fall to the French, of which the Prophets silence is a con­vincing Argument; for he would certainly have given some intimation of it, and whoever reads his Writings, where any sense can be made out, shall find, that he is not sparing to proclaim any good Fortune to his Nation, and it may be some things in his Book, and some Discourses with some of the French Kings, have not given them a little encouragement in their great Underta­kings. But let him explain himself.

I would gladly be satisfied, in what Kings Reign of France till now, they were in a capacity to range the Ocean, or to oblige the Dutch and En­glish to join for their common safety against them? And if the man be a Prophet, here is like to be some work at Sea, as well as Land; but it is to be hoped the French will pay the Charges of the War: And if the Dutch and English chase them as far as Roan, they must chase them off the Seas; and I cannot imagine when such a pursuit shall be, that the Armies of France shall be in a good posture in Flanders: So that one wedge must drive out another, and this later Prophesie applyed to the Circumstances of time and the Confederations now on foot, seem to explain the Riddle of the former.

In another place he tells us

And this I am sure there was yet never any at­tempt to do, since the time that Nostradamus lived, nor any considerable War betwixt the two Nati­ons, till this present; in which, if the English should land, possibly the French might receive them as their welcome deliverers from slavery, rather than as insulting Conquerors. But that which has often surprised me with the most plea­sant Imaginations in the World, as the most ridi­culous of all those Prophesies, is that which now is as much the occasion of my wonder.

Here is first a plain description of the French Dominion, which is certainly carried on with the greatest Cruelty, and managed with the most horrible Oppression, where ever their Arms have made a Conquest; and for their own People, they are most absolute Slaves. One may say of France as of the Grand Signior, where-ever his Horse sets his Foot, the Grass will not grow again in seven Years. So great are the Desolations of Germany; especially Alsace, and all that plea­sant, populous, and fertile Country along the Rhine, that there is scarce an Inhabitant, or a Village left for many Leagues together, to make complaint of the barbarous inhumanity of the French Armies, who have left behind them un­exampled Instances of their Cruelty, in such spoils and ravage, as makes the Country look like the Fields of Sodom, when first covered with the Ashes of those flaming Cities. Such Cruel­ties of War as exceed all the most salvage pro­ceedings of the Ottoman Family, and the most barbarous Conquerours amongst the Heathens.

[But he shall see his great Army ruin'd by the most dangerous blow of Fire.] Not improbable, Heaven often measures by the Lex Talionis; Fire shall destroy those who have destroyed so ma­ny innocent millions by fire. But by this Fire he seems to intimate the force of Powder, the now common and terrible Fewel of the horrid Engines of War.

[He might do better to make an accord.] Cer­tainly this would have been wholsom counsel for France, who doubtless might have had ho­nourable terms of Peace, had they prosecuted it in good earnest, and not rather as a Blind to lull some of her Neighbours asleep, whilst she might more easily cut the Throats of others: though how safe such a Peace, as must have left France in the Possession of so great Conquests, or any part of them, must have been to the rest of the European Princes and States, I leave it to the De­termination of Polititians. But since France hath refused those Proposals, it follows, [That he must drink the juice of Orange.] This is what I have often laught at, but now it seems to carry in it not only a very serious but significant mean­ing. For by the Orange must of necessity be meant the most illustrious William of Nassau Prince of Orange, that great though young Ge­neral; and by the juice of Orange must be meant the force, power, and vertue of that Princes Va­lour, Courage, and Conduct, which speak him an old Souldier though a young Man: And by France drinking the juice of Orange, if an Ac­cord be not made, cannot be meant any other thing, but that to her disadvantage, she shall feel the Force and Power of that young Hero de­sign'd for Greatness and Wonders.

And to animate that Illustrious Prince, I will subjoyn but one more of the Prophecies of Nostra­damus, [Page 23] which shews that he shall have good Assi­stance.

By the great one of Hungarie is meant the Em­peror; by his going into the Boat, is meant his imbarquing in the Confederation. By the new one is meant, a new King of France; that is, such a one as France never had before: He shall not make a new War with his Neighbour; that is, it shall not be a new War, but the old claim to Elaunders revived. His Neighbour is the Spani­ard, [Page 24] whom he shall besiege on every side, viz. in the Netherlands, Catalonia Messina, &c. But the Black one, that is the King of England, accord­ing to the old Prophesie, Rex ater in albo, with his Highness, that is his Highness the Prince of Orange, being confederated together by the alliance of a happy match, shall not suffer him (that is the Spa­niard) to be over-pressed, During three Years he shall keep his People in order; but after that let France look for nothing but Domestick Insurrections and Rebellions, from a People overladen with the in­tollerable burden of a War, which might have been happily ended long before, if the obstinacy and ill Genius of some great men, driven head­long by their Destiny, had not prevented it.

I might add, to render these Conjectures more probable, many other Rational Arguments, as that old and so often verified Prophesie of the Poet,

And the dreadful Instances of Philip of Spain, and the three Henrys, Second, Third, and Fourth of France, who all aimed at the Monarchy of the West, are fatal Examples of the Tragical End [Page 25] of vain Ambition after unlawful Soveraignty and Empire. And certainly they who will sacrifice the Blood and Treasure of so many Innocents, and the Interests of all other Princes and States to their own inordinate desires of Ruling, can­not in common Reason believe, but that they have almost as many Enemies as there are men in the World; and cannot expect a mild or gentle Destiny. For there is in all Mankind, Princes and People, a natural love for their Liberty, Life, Pro­perty, and Religion; and when they apprehend that all these are in danger of being invaded, and ravisht from them, by the force of Arms, they will not only combine pro Aris & focis, and re­solutely dispute the Quarrel, with their Lives and Fortunes. And they live in a perpetual fear of a Scaevola or a Ravaillac, to endeavour by a sudden blow, to free the World as well as themselves from the danger of Slavery; and to revenge those Murders, Rapines, Miseries, and Desola­tions, which have been the Results of such Am­bitious Attempts, which brings into my mind another of the Prophesies of Nostradamus.

I will leave this to the probability of what may be, according to what has been.

To conclude, I wish all prosperity to the Arms of the present Confederation, and that by their Union amongst themselves they may disappoint the Designs of their Enemies; and that they would lay aside their Private Animosities, Heats, and Quarrels; which, who-ever in such a Con­juncture shall refuse to do, cannot be the Friends of their Countries Interest, Liberty, or Glory; but will lye under the vehement suspicion of being corrupted and dazled with the Lustre of Gold, to side with the Common Enemy, and betray their Country; nor will their Clamours against the French be able to protect them from so just a su­spicion, but rather increase the jealousie; no­thing being a more common Blind, than to look one way whilst men Row another; since it is most certain that no persons can oblige an Ene­my, though with their personal assistance, to [Page 27] that degree, as they may by sowing Jealousies in a Confederation, and by crossing the Designs that may be formed for the Common Security; which is in short to unbind the Faggot, that it may more quickly be burnt. Let the Malice of these Predictions be to the Enemies of Peace, and to the Authors of this miserable War.