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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80722	The visions and prophecies concerning England, Scotland, and Ireland, of Ezekiel Grebner, son of Obadiah Grebner, son of Paul Grebner, who presented the famous book of prophecies to Queen Elisabeth.	Cowley, Abraham, 1618-1667.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6696; Thomason E1936_3; ESTC R210101	29,500	93

THE VISIONS AND PROPHECIES Concerning ENGLAND SCOTLAND And IRELAND Of Ezekiel Grebner Son of Obadiah Grebner Son of Paul Grebner who presented the famous Book of Prophecies to Queen ELISABETH Ezekiel 2. 4. For they are impudent Children and stiff-hearted I do send thee unto them and thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord God 5. And they whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are a Rebellious House yet shall know that there has been a Prophet among them London Printed for Henry Herringman and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Anchor in the lower walk in the New Exchange 166● ADVERTISEMENT Concerning the BOOK and AUTHOR PAUL GREBNER came out of Germany in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and presented to her a Book of Prophecies which she gave to Dr. Nevill Dean of her Chapel and he to Trinity College in Cambridge whereof he was Master where it remains still in the Library and has of late years been made very famous by the fulfilling of many of the Predictions in it concerning our Nation and mens hopes of the speedy accomplishment of some others concerning the re-establishment and exaltation of the afflicted Royal Family This Paul Grebner maried a wife with a considerable fortune in the North and had by her a Son called Obadiah Grebner and two Daughters who both dyed young after which he made a journey into his own Country leaving his family in England and there deceased His son abeut the middle of King James his time maried too in the North and had by his wife who lost her own life in the Child-birth this Ezechiel Grebner whom hee bred up very carefully in all manner of good Literature being himself a person of great Piety and Learning and esteemed to have the gift of Prophecie as well as his Father though nothing of that kind was published by him From these two sprung our Son and Grandchild of Prophets who was first educated a while at the University of Cambridge and after sent to several Academies beyond Seas where he got great reputation for his extraordinary parts and virtues at the beginning of the late troubles he returned into England and engaged with the Parliament not forsaking them till they as he was wont to say revolting had left their Cause and Him to shift for themselves among the men whom he had fought against Ater the death of the King not onely his detestation of the fact but his indignation to be so abused and deluded as to have his own innocency made instrumental towards the producing of such wicked Ends drew him to such an open and avowed hatred of them as occasioned the ruine of his estate the danger of his life and the losse twice of his liberty first under the Parliament and then under the Protector at the time of whose Funeral as appeareth by the Book it self this Vision happened to him which that he might write and publish with lesse danger than he had formerly spoken he made a journey into Germany and had no sooner done the thing he went for but he died at Strasburg last October He left all his papers with a Dutch Gentleman called Conrart Sluys who had lived long in England and spoke our language perfectly well There were of them as I understand several little Treaties in English and Latin a book of Verses upon different occasions some English some Latin and some Dutch for it seems he was a great Lover and Writer of Verse as you will find by his frequent Excursions into it in this Discourse and lastly three books of Visions and Prophecies concerning the Affairs of our three Nations The first which is but as it were a Preface to the other is that which is here published The second contains a Discourse with the Angel Guardian of England concerning all the late confusions and misfortunes of it The third denounces heavy judgements against the three Kingdoms and several places and parties in them unlesse they prevent them speedily by serious repentance and that greatest and hardest work of it Restitution There is there upon this subject the burden of England the burden of Scotland the burden of Ireland the burden of London the burden of the Army the burden of the Divines the burden of the Lawyers and many others after the manner of Prophetical threatnings in the Old Testament Thus I am told by the Gentleman who gave me this first book and who had read the other two This was left in his hands accidentally the other were carried as we believe into Italy by Mr. Conrart Sluys and we have used means to recover them from him if it be possible hoping that they may be blessedly instrumental towards that repentance and conversion of our Nations which is so evidently necessary for the diverting of all those calamities which are there foretold and which hang already so apparently over our heads that they may be seen even by Human Reason as well as foreseen by Divine Inspiration Both the Book and this Preface were written in the time of the late little Protector RICHARD THE VISIONS AND PROPHECIES Concerning ENGLAND SCOTLAND And IRELAND IT was the Funeral day of the late man who made himself to be called Protectour and though I bore but little affection either to the memory of him or to the trouble and folly of all publick Pageantry yet I was forced by the importunity of my company to go along with them and be a Spectator of that solemnity the expectation of which had been so great that it was said to have brought some very curious persons and no doubt singular Virtuosos as far as from the Mount in Cornwall and from the Orcades I found there had been much more cost bestowed than either the dead man or indeed Death it self could deserve There was a mighty train of black assistants among which too divers Princes in the persons of their Ambassadors being infinitely afflicted for the losse of their Brother were pleased to attend the Herse was Magnificent the Idol Crowned and not to mention all other Ceremonies which are practised at Royal interrements and therefore by no means could be omitted here the vast multitude of Spectators made up as it uses to do no small part of the Spectacle it self But yet I know not how the whole was so managed that methoughts it somewhat represented the life of him for whom it was made Much noise much tumult much expence much magnificence much vain-glory briefly a great show and yet after all this but an ill sight At last for it seemed long to me and like his short Reign too very tedious the whole Scene past by and I retired back to my Chamber weary and I think more melancholy than any of the Mourners Where I began to reflect upon the whole life of this Prodigious Man and sometimes I was filled with horror and detestation of his actions and sometimes I inclined a little to reverence and admiration of

his courage conduct and successe till by these different motions and agitations of mind rocked as it were a sleep I fell at last into this Vision or if you please to call it but a Dream I shall not take it ill because the Father of Poets tells us Even Dreams too are from God But sure it was no Dream for I was suddenly transported afar off whether in the body or out of the body like St. Paul I know not and found my self upon the top of that famous Hill in the Island Mona which has the prospect of three Great and Not-long-since most happy King doms As soon as ever I lookt upon them the Not-long-since strook upon my Memory and called forth the sad representation of all the Sins and all the Miseries that had overwhelmed them these twenty years And I wept bitterly for two or three hours and when my present stock of moisture was all wasted I fell a sighing for an hour more and as soon as I recovered from my passion the use of speech and reason I broke forth as I remember looking upon England into this complaint I. Ah happy Isle how art thou chang'd and curst Since I was born and knew thee first When Peace which had forsook the World around Frighted with noise and the shrill Trumpets found Thee for a private place of rest And a secure retirement chose Wherein to build her Halcyon Nest No wind durst stir abroad the Air to discompose 2. When all the Riches of the Globe beside Flow'd in to Thee with every Tide When all that Nature did thy soil deny The Grouth was of thy fruitfull Industry When all the proud and dreadfull Sea And all his Tributary streams A constant Tribute paid to Thee When all the liquid World was one extended Thames 3. When Plenty in each Village did appear And Bounty was it's Steward there When Gold walkt free about in open view Ere it one Conquering parties Prisoner grew When the Religion of our State Had Face and Substance with her Voice Ere she by ' er foolish Loves of late Like Eccho once a Nymph turn'd onely into Noise 4. When Men to Men respect and friendship bore And God with Reverence did adore When upon Earth no Kingdom could have shown A happier Monarch to us than our own And yet his Subjects by him were Which is a Truth will hardly be Receiv'd by any vulgar Ear A secret known to few made happi'r ev'n than He. 5. Thou doest a Chaos and Confusion now A Babel and a Bedlam grow And like a Frantick person thou doest tear The Ornaments and Cloaths which thou should'st wear And cut thy Limbs and if we see Just as thy Barbarous Britons did Thy Body with Hypocrisie Painted all ore thou think'st Thy naked shame is hid 6. The Nations which envied thee erewhile Now l●ugh too little 't is to smile They laugh and would have pitty'd the ●las But that thy Faults all Pity do surpasse Art thou the Country which didst hate And mock the French Inconstancy And have we have we seen of late Lesse change of Habits there than Governments in Thee 7. Unhappy Isle No ship of thine at Sea Was ever tost and torn like Thee Thy naked Hulk loose on the Waves does beat The Rocks and Banks around her ruin threat What did thy foolish Pilots ail To lay the Compasse quite aside Without a Law or Rule to sayl And rather take the Winds then Heavens to be their Guide 8. Yet mighty God yet yet we humbly crave This floating Isle from shipwrack save And though to wash that Bloud which does it stain It well deserves to sink into the Main Yet for the Royal Martyrs prayer The Royal Martyr p●ays we know This guilty perishing Vessel spare Hear but his Soul above and not his bloud below I think I should have gone on but that I was interrupted by a strange and terrible Apparition for there appeared to me arising out of the earth as I conceived the figure of a man taller than a Gyant or indeed than the shadow of any Gyant in the evening His body was naked but that nakednesse adorn'd or rather deform'd all over with several figures after the manner of the antient Britons painted upon it and I perceived that most of them were the representation of the late battels in our civil Warrs and if I be not much mistaken it was the battel of Nasbey that was drawn upon his Breast His Eyes were like burning Brasse and there were three Crowns of the same mettal as I guest and that lookt as red-hot too upon his Head He held in his right hand a Sword that was yet bloody and neverthelesse the Motto of it was Pax quaeritur bello and in his left hand a thick Book upon the back of wich was written in Letters of Gold Acts Ordinances Protestations Covenants Engagements Declarations Remonstrances c. Though this suddain unusual and dreadful object might have quelled a greater courage than mine yet so it pleased God for there is nothhing bolder than a Man in a Vision that I was not at all daunted but askt him resolutely and briefly What art thou And he said I am called The North-west Principality His Highnesse the Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions belonging thereunto for I am that Angel to whom the Almighty has committed the Government of those three Kingdoms which thou seest from this place And I answered and said If it be so Sir it seems to me that for almost these● twenty years past your Highnesse has been absent from your charge for not onely if any Angel but if any wise and honest Men had since that time been our Governour we should not have wandred thus long in these laborious and endlesse Labyrinths of confusion but either not have entered at all into them or at least have returned back ere we had absolutely lost our way but instead of your Highnesse we have had since such a Protector as was his Predecessor Richard the Third to the King his Nephew for he presently slew the Common-wealth which he pretended to protect and set up himself in the place of it a little lesse guilty indeed in one respect because the other slew an Innocent and this Man did but murder a Muderer Such a Protector we have had as we would have been glad to have changed for any Enemy and rather received a constant Turk than this every moneths Apostate such a Protector as Man is to his Flocks which he sheers and sells or devours himself and I would fain know what the Wolf which he protects him from could do more Such a Protector and as I was proceeding me-thoughts his Highnesse began to put on a displeased and threatning countenance as men use to do when their dearest Friends happen to be traduced in their company which gave me the first rise of jealousy against him for I did not believe that Cromwell amongst all his forein Correspondences

this ignominy under the great name of the Conquest of Jamaica as if a defeated Army should have the impudence to brag afterwards of the Victory because though they had fled out of the Field of Battel yet they quartered that night in a Village of the Enemies The War with Spain was a necessary consequence of this folly and how much we have gotten by it let the Custom-house and Exchange inform you and if he please to boast of the taking a part of the Silver-Fleet which indeed no body else but he who was the sole gainer has cause to do at least let him give leave to the rest of the Nation which is the onely loser to complain of the losse of twelve hundred of her ships But because it may here perhaps be answered that his successes nearer home have extinguisht the disgrace of so remote miscariages and that Dunkirk ought more to be remembred for his glory than St. Domingo for his disadvantage I must confesse as to the honour of the English courage that they were not wanting upon that occasion excepting onely the fault of serving at least indirectly against their Master to the upholding of the renown of their warlike Ancestors But for his particular share of it who sat still at home and exposed them so frankly abroad I can onely say that for lesse money than he in the short time of his reign exacted from his fellow Subjects some of our former Princes with the daily hazard of their own persons have added to the Dominion of England not onely one Town but even a greater Kingdom than it self And this beeing all considerable as concerning his enterprises abroad let us examine in the next place how much wee owe him for his Justice and good Government at home And first he found the Common-wealth as they then called it in a ready stock of about 800m pounds he left the Commonwealth as he had the impudent Raillery still to call it some two Millions and an half in debt He found our Trade very much decayd indeed in comparison of the golden times of our late Princes he left it as much again more decayd than he found it and yet not onely no Prince in England but no Tyrant in the World ever sought out more base or infamous means to raise moneys I shall onely instance in one that he put in practice and another that he attempted but was frighted from the execution even He by the infamy of it That which he put in practice was Decimation which was the most impudent breach of all publick Faith that the whole Nation had given and all private capitulations which himself had made as the Nations General and Servant that can be found out I believe in all History from any of the most barbarous Generals of the most barbarous People Which because it has been most excellently and most largely layd open by a whole Book written upon that Subject I shall onely desire you here to remember the thing in general and to be pleased to look upon that Author when you would recollect all the particulars and circumstances of the iniquity The other design of raising a present sum of Money which he violently persued but durst not put in execution was by the calling in and establishment of the Jews at London from which he was rebuted by the universal outcry of the Divines and even of the Citizens too who took it ill that a considerable number at least amongst themselves were not thought Jews enough by their own Herod And for this design they say he invented Oh Antichrist {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to sell St. Pauls to them for a Synagogue if their purs●s and devotions could have reacht to the purchase And this indeed if he had done onely to reward that Nation which had given the first noble example of crucifying their King it might have had some appearance of Gratitude but he did it onely for love of their Mammon and would have sold afterwards for as much more St. Peters even at his own Westminster to the Turks for a Mosquito Such was his extraordinary Piety to God that he desired he might be worshipped in all manners excepting onely that heathenish way of the Common-Prayer Book But what do I speak of his wicked inventions for getting money when every penny that for almost five years he took every day from every man living in England Scotland and Ireland was as much Robbery as if it had been taken by a Thief upon the High-ways Was it not so or can any man think that Cromwell with the assistance of his Forces and Mosse Troopers had more right to the command of all mens purses than he might have had to any ones whom he had met and been too strong for upon a Road and yet when this came in the case of Mr. Concy to be disputed by a legal tryal he which was the highest act of Tyranny that ever was seen in England not onely discouraged and threatned but violently imprisoned the Councel of the Plaintiff that is he shut up the Law it self close Prisoner that no man might have relief from or accesse to it And it ought to be remembred that this was done by those men who a few years before had so bitterly decried and openly opposed the Kings regular and formal way of proceeding in the trial of a little Ship-money But though we lost the benefit of our old Courts of Justice it cannot be denyed that he set up new ones and such they were that as no virtuous Prince before would so no ill one durst erect What have we lived so many hundred years under such a form of Justice as has been able regularly to punish all men that offended against it and is it so deficient just now that we must seek out new wayes how to proceed against offenders The reason which can onely be given in nature for a necessity of this is because those things are now made Crimes which were never esteemed so in former Ages and there must needs be a new Court set up to punish that which all the old ones were bound to protect and reward But I am so far from Declaming as you call it against these wickednesses which if I should undertake to do I should never get to the Peroration that you see I only give a hint of some few and passe over the rest as things that are too many to be numbred and must onely be weighed in grosse Let any man show me for though I pretend not to much reading I will defy him in all History let any man show me I say an Example of any Nation in the World though much greater than ours where there have in the space of four years been made so many Prisoners onely out of the endlesse Jealousies of one Tyrants guilty Imagination I grant you that Marius and Sylla and the accursed Triumvirate after them put more People to