shining with variety of Flowers and abundant Fruitfulness the Seas their over-joy thinking it no burden to their best and well-rigged Ships to give way and bow down that all she brings from forreign and the rich returns of Trade that plough her Ocean may when so loaden in their best dress also wait upon the Crown peaceably attending suffering themselves to be led by it All which they did being Merchant Ships not Men of War And now tell me is it not pitie the greatest too that whom God hath made the more reasonable Creature Man should onely be averse and stand in Rebellion going on in disobedience to his own undoing But I may not complain as anon I shall let you see He also is or shall come in for who can resist when God will have it so He hath in store nay he is now distributing to you the greatest mercy in the world which I dare not longer conceal from all the Sons of Men but more especially from the so much belov'd of the Lord the Seed of Abraham the Jews Here 's the hope of Israel as also to the Heathen towards whom his Compassions fail not and to this our Orthodox true Protestant Religion for the honour of it to the unparalel'd joy of all good mens hearts These things observed I then applied my self to Doctor Mollines who was one of the ten Persons I desired to be present And because I knew him to be a person of good life believed him of sound judgement I made it my beseech to him That in a short time he would be pleased to give us a Sermon upon this Subject or Text He that covers his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercie For to me it seemed that Gods return is in mercy was onely witheld by our going on in iniquity Here also I may not omit but observe to you that before I came to the Lord of Broghills I was taken from my knees and could not go on to beseech Gods blessing upon what I had to deliver to him untill I turned to the Reading Psalms But as I was cast formerly upon the Prophet Haggai with good success for the rebuild of that Church so here I was cast upon the 84 and 85 Psalms both as full as is imaginable to any that well considers and compares what I observed out of my Dream and desire to the rebuild of Gods House Oh how amiable and how much to be delighted in is thy House how should our Souls long after thy Worship Which when I had read and considered the manner of my being cast upon them having already disputed all I intended or almost all what I would speak to that Company at the Lord Brougills I could not but conclude what I believe every well-observing man will That it was the onely Providence of God Almighty who for my further confirmation gave me those Psalms of Scripture to strengthen me and dispose others to their duty who he was willing should reap the unparalel'd blessings there assured Pray well observe it the one lets you see what desires we should have for the rebuild of worship in Gods House the other his return in mercy blessing the Land when we so fear and serve him Righteousness as that Light shall then go before him Mercy also and Truth shall meet together Righteousness and Peace shall kiss each other and so set us in the way of his steps Full to all Having done all of Interpretation in reference to my Dream I could not pass this lightly over but observe it to them as also how that God had many times shewed me several things in and from Heaven called me to the search and often advised the reading of his Holy Word giving me to understand that by so doing I should be abundantly happy and blessed In particular one time it seemed to me he took me into a great Light when all the World was in darkness he placed on each side of me an Angel of the Lord that on the right hand opened a great Book to me bid me read therein and took an Angel of Gold off that Book into his hand and put it into mine when received I folded my arms and bowed before him believing it was no other but as the Bush of Moses the presence of the Lord He then told me he gave it not to be folded up or hid but to be improved were his Talents given and so advised me to read Another time one night about the hour ten walking at the end of Broad-street in which I then and now live looking up into the Heavens and observing so great a number of Stars I called to minde the promise made to Abraham That his Seed should be as numberless as the Stars in Heaven So praising God I there stood in or near that place about half an hour where I did see the Heavens opened my Saviour on the Throne the Patriarks Prophets Apostles Martyrs Saints and Angels waiting round about it and to my comfort my own Father This I saw when I was awake and really there standing Something hath been shewed me of our ever-blessed King dead but in Heaven glorious this also I did observe to his Lordship but made no other use of it than this That forasmuch as all I ever dreamed or saw of that nature was above in the Heavens or came from thence nothing ever from the bottomless pit the Earth or Seas which gave me to believe it was the further from Delusion and much the more to be believed True because that which is of Heaven is Heavenly And although the Crown was upon no mans head yet being waited upon by the Ships it implied He was to come from beyond the Seas whose undoubted right it was And who that Man was to whom it properly belonged his Star demonstrated which at Pauls Cross appeared when there was a Sermon preached there upon the day he was born on being the same as I conceive our Lord rose on and his our Kings Birth also early in the morning as his our Saviours Resurrection whose Vice-roy certainly he this CHARLS STUART is as ye shall hear anon his Father our late King then present And as the Gentleman that preached about the hour of eleven was giving thanks to God Almighty That to our then Soveraign Lord the King and to us his Subjects was that day born a Son and Prince in whom our hopes were and assurance might be He would prove most Eminent in his Church on Earth to Gods glorie and his Majesties and our comfort So thanking God for this for I present was I looked up to Heaven and there at almost eleven a Clock in the moneth of May a most clear day very near the Sun also did I see that his Star appear which wondering at being just over as it were his place of Birth White-Hall or his Fathers head who was come to give God praise for him at the Cross which was also
to suffer us longer who pretend to the most and best of Piety to carry on a War and continue such actions as should prove so scandalous to the Protestant Religion deterring from the profession of it Such as there lived among us who could not certainly be drawn to the profession of it by our so bad example living as it were like men of dispositions onely born to cruelty and irreligion Beseeching that he would be pleased to return to us in mercy set every mans sins in order before his face to the detest of them resolving never to return to folly And that of his goodnes he would cast theÌ„ all behind his back that we might once more come into the Houses built for his Worship and Service with prepared hearts devout Souls forgiving one the other all desirous to be taught of God that we might live hereafter more according to his will revealed in his word and so knowing his good pleasure we might readily apply our selves to do it Further that the Ministers appointed to officiate in those places might be men sent from God who understanding his word aright might to us so divide it And that we might all harmoniously agree together not onely to Preach and talk down Sin but that we might all live for the time to come to serve him in sincerity of heart and in the beauty of holiness So that others observing Gods mercies towards us and our amendments towards him might also with us be drawn to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Sometime of that Thursday after-noon I spent in that Remain of Church so praying meditating and reading and could not do otherwise Indeede the more I prayed the more I wept the more I wept the more I joyed and from my Devotions I remember not that I ever went away with a better return being very highly comforted and so assur'd that God would hear and have mercie and from thenceforth and in that place bless me giving me for consolation that a well-guided zeal for his House Worship and Service made great our own and establish'd it also That night I went home to a little House I then and there lodged at and had this dream Me thought there was a very gross and thick Darkness over the face of the whole Earth dark beyond compare I then heard a very terrible Thunder which more affrighted me and looking up to Heaven I saw a glimering Light not clear about the bigness and of the proportion of a round Table some two yards over In that Light there appeared to me as the Body of an Oak about a yard long Root it had not nor Top nor Leaves nor Fruit Full of Sangs it was and offensive Knots not fit for Timber or other use than the Fire This soon vanished yet the darkness continued but grew greater than the â—ormer and the Thunder answerable indeed so terrible that it seemed to me to waken and rouze up all the people of the Land which when risen I prayed in these words O Lord the people are now risen up and stand in readiness to do thy will wouldst thou be pleased to let them know it I beseech thee O Lord give them a sign in Heaven or from Heaven of thy good pleasure and we will readily obey thee There then appeared as formerly such another Light not clearer but bigger and as the former was over our heads about the height or distance of the Clouds having in it such a Body of an Oake as the other in this onely differing 't was bigger and more offensive As we stood thus gazing anon the Heavens began to grow light in the East as approach of day and Sun We standing as it were in the midst of the Kingdom of England the Light encreased and came on And with it rose and came toward us the most glorious Crown ever eyes beheld the richest for Jewels the most transparently cut every way the beautifullest imaginable Having in it and through it standing as the three Plumes of Feathers in the Princes Arms a bunch of Bayes or small Bay-trees beautifull for verdure bearing Berries as having Root Waiting upon this Crown came many goodly Ships which Crown Bayes and Ships came all along thus together in the Light from the East toward us the people who with fixed eyes stood looking into Heaven All which we perfectly discerning and being come almost over our heads we the people all of us with one voice gladness and consent cried out O Lord we praise thee this is of Heaven we will follow it I then looked behinde me for the former Glimmering Light and Offensive Oake in it and I saw them flying away so fast that immediately they were gone and no more to be seen The people seeing it so gone out of the Heavens reitterated the former words and said all with one consent Come this Crown is of Heaven we will follow it so bowed down and worshipped praising God The Light then went over all the Heavens towards the West and great was the Light the Crown Bayes and Ships continued in the Heavens now light all over After this immediately from the Heavens I heard most sweet and pleasing Sounds as the voice or murmur of many waters and on the Earth shining appeared nothing but Beauty and Plenty amongst the people of the Earth loving kindness and good affections all with one consent praising God Thus ravished with an over-joy I wakened and found my self very wet with tears My greatest joyes and greatest weepings seldom are divided I spent most of that night in Meditation and casting what this dream might import for truely this is but one though the most considerable as I conceive of the many I have had from Heaven demonstrating several things The next day being Fryday a day in the week which for some seven years past I have set apart though not alwayes spent God be pleased to have mercie upon me and forgive me as I ought or should for fasting and examination of my self That as I am one Fryday nearer my end so I may in one measure or another grow fitter for it in regard of the many mercies God Almighty hath been pleased to afford me from my Cradle hitherto As that he hath been pleased to preserve me from the noisom Pestilence from the violence of the War where be pleased to observe I have been committed and taken into custody three times on the Kings side and five times on the Parliaments yet never was in action or imploy on either part from so many great and eminent dangers both by Sea and Land from Men lying in wait particularly for my bloud And lastly that the Lord hath not cut me off in the midst of my sins and already given me my portion with that so sad company in Hell from whence is no returning These were certainly grounds enough for every mans Fasting and Prayer especially living in a Time when wickedness seemed to be practiced by a Law at least it was not
Summer I past in changes from one malady to another At last I broke out into very many Boyls so that I may truely say from the Crown of my Head to my Foot I was furnished with them forty or fifty at a time of all sizes My condition in that and some other things too very like that of Job's which escaped not my observe in a Letter to that so eminently good Countess of Cork beseeching some of her remedies of which she is free and do heal as Balm from her munificent and answerable hand To God Almighty and that Honorable Countess I owe most humble thanks for recovery from my so long and tedious sickness About Michaelmas I went to Dublin in the company and safe conduct of that most Honorable Lord the Lord of Broghill where I stayed untill near Christmas then returned to Youghall After six dayes there I could not be quiet untill I had sapplied my self by Letter to his Lordship giving him to understand I had a Dream at Lismore some 9 moneths past Which Dream together with what Observance or Interpretation God was pleased to put into my heart and minde I was to communicate to him Which I could not decline and therefore besought his Lordship that in his presence and some more persons of Honour in that Letter named he and they would be pleased to lend me half an hours time and their attention The Gout at that time was violent upon his Lordship by reason of which incommode he was disinabled to sit up so that his Lordship was pleased to answer my Letter that for that reason onely he desired my forbearance untill it past over of which when so I should have notice and in presence of these persons desired also admittance so soon as convenient His Lordships Letter I have and reaped what promised a few dayes after Being in his Bed-Chamber Those I desired present I recited my Dream as formerly The Observance or Interpretation I gave thus The customary sins we were guilty of and had unhappily involved our selves in had now begot our security as in the dead of night and sleep from which we were not to be wakened or rowzed but by the Almighty power of God And therefore to let us see our condition and his displeasure for sin whom our Impieties had irritated he therefore came in Thunder to shew us that our seeming righteousness reached not Heaven nearer then the Clouds our pretentions to good went not higher like an Ignis-fatuus they were or a Gloe-worm Light they had but not substantial enough to shew us we were strong as the Oak which we might there see our wicked selves compared to Strong we were to work wickedness Governours and all to which Oak they and we may be compared as in the Prophet Zechary the 11. and the 2. Bad we were of choice so of practice so for works so for offence No Root no Top no Leaf no Fruit not so much as virdure Offensive on all sides in regard of the Snags not fit for Timber such our Governours onely for the Fire such their unprofitableness just like the Stag's horn when the velvet of Hypocricy is fallen from it as most excellently his Majesty observes in his Book which wicked Governours when the people once fail them and truely understand them how unprofitable how offensive how dangerous how hurtfull they would then sufficiently hate them When once as this Oak stript of his bark nakedly seen and well observed then fit onely for the fire I command you read the 3 last verses of the first of Isaiah and see if this Interpretation be not of the Lord yea his own I will give you the words For they shall be ashamed of the Oaks which you have desired Ye shall be confounded for ye shall be as an Oak whose leaf fadeth and the strong shall be as tow and the makers of it as a spark and they shall both burn together Here are the Oaks ye have chosen when ye forsook the Lord. Is not this a Vision and the Interpretation of the Lord I made it before I observed this I now interline it 'T is of God the Interpretation Therefore the Oak abides not having no allowance or establishment from God in Heaven Fly away it doth when the Light and Crown appear To both which they being enemies and haters of God makes them vanish and be no more seen Though they lift themselves as high as the Clouds yet their place is below whither he throws them Of his allowance they are not neither do the people when they desire to do the will of God and he hath opened their eyes to discern aright what is of God as they confess that Light Crown and Bayes they then know the Crown and Him deputed to govern to be onely of God And because it hath its allowance of Heaven with one consent praising God they invite All to what themselves are now convinced of Obedience to Him and It onely and so breaking forth they altogether cry Come this is of Heaven we will follow it And that it may have their best affections and firm allowance they give it their Second the wisest and best Thoughts resolvingly too they reitterate the words Come this is of Heaven we will follow it And so down to God and It and worshiped and praised the Lord. Now although this were and yet is our depraved condition and that we have added wickedness to wickedness and made our selves strong to do so which the Second greater Light with the offensive and unprofitable Oak in it fully implied yet observe the loving-kindness of God Almighty We no sooner got into a frame to beg of him inablements to know his Will resolving then to do it and are gotten into a posture of readiness standing up but He lets us see that his displeasure is blown over The Thunder that ceaseth those wicked Governours as offensive Oaks they are fled the seeming Light that 's annihilated It is his mercie that endures for ever and his Compassion assures us he delights not in the death of a sinner but rather that he would turn from his wickedness and live And thus expostulating with us brings from him this expression Why will ye die O ye house of Israel Repent be ye converted and return from whence ye are fallen the contempt of Gods House and Worship Obedience unto whom I have set over you for good would you but see it did not your continuance in sin blinde your eyes and deprave your understandings yea could not but be happy Bless us he would and that to the full too as he assures us in that Prophet Haggai and divers other places even from that time we rebuild his House and obey whom he hath set over us for good And if thus we would readily apply our selves and herein obey God and our King mark and behold The Heavens they invite you and demonstrate their allowance rejoycing at it by their pleasant sounds the Earth also its gladness
ten or twelve persons by me desired He was pleased to afford me the favour so also most of the others By this time it pleased Almighty God to let me know he had deputed me to go to Oliver Cromwell and after to his Majesty that now is CHARLES STUART Charles the Second The imploy he would inform me of and for the Commission it self I must believe that from strength to strength He would inable me untill I came to perfect Peace in Zion And although the things to be done were great mighty strange and wonderfull yet for his Honour Mercy and Names sake he would bring them to pass and they should be marvellous in our eyes Thus began and thus ended my Commission of the Lord. I then bethought me of what I would say to Oliver Cromwell and thus resolved that from God I would reprove him set his sins in order before his face and tell him he was that great Deceiver the scandal of the Protestant Religion the Dishonour of our Nation a Whited wall he was a great and close Hypocrite a Man of bloud and Son of Belial and more than all this for I never loved him all this I resolved to say to him but the Lord reproved me and gave me to remember that my self prayed in my Dream That God would be pleased to let the men of the world who were desirous to do his will know it from Heaven or in the Heavens by a sign which I have given thee and they would readily obey applying themselves to walk in conformity thereunto Having thus altered me and as before again reproved me letting me know God judged not as man did He commanded me to treat and use him kindly the dispose of the heart being in the hand of God So that now from former hating of Him for so I did no man more I now cannot do other than pray for him for so I should and for all others that God would be pleased to inable him for the overcoming of all his enemies more especially his corruptions And firmly believe I do that the Lord will make Him highly instrumental for the promote and carrying on things of very high concernment for his glory to his Honour and the astonishment of the world For I know what apprehensions the most have of him both at home and abroad but God judgeth not as man doth Before the Lord of Broghill I came the second time and so began with him as you read upon Oliver Cromwell I then told him what I firmly believed the Lord put into my heart and tongue by his dictates and Visions and how that the Souldery men of Valour and Honour should submit to the King who would not onely forgive them but give unto them all so doing Indempnity Honours Preferments Lands places and Hereditaments Seal and confirm them unto them in the surest Tenure of this Kingdom as at or after that of East Greenwich Further that as the Light came on in Heavens from the East haveing in it the richest Crown ever eyes beheld the Bayes rooted and flourishing standing in that Crown as the three Plumes of Feathers in his own Arms Coronet upon which Bayes was store of Berries which implieth a provision for Posterity both waited upon by good store of Shipping so the King should come from beyond the Seas Land in the East of Kent or thereabouts and come on towards the West See thus comes the Lightning in the 24 of Matthew the 27 verse out of the East and shineth even unto the West so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be O my God and my King well I go on This would fill the Men of the Kingdom as the Heavens with rejoycing the people praising God and the Souldiery for their good affections to Gods glory and the Kings interest the Earth giving her encrease All Animosities thus taken away we should agree better than ever dwell together in brotherly love and the most sure bond of peace and great should be the praise of God Honour of the King and the Souldiery also the true Protestant Religion receive its Lustre upon the Earth and flourish beyond compare Among the Persons present I then told the Lady Frances Boyl eldest Daughter to the so excellent Countess of Cork lamed in her infancy to so much debility that she halteth the deepest imaginable but God Almighty hath been pleased to more than recompence that debility by the more noble endowments of her Soul and minde which speak her not onely in them the lively image of her most excellent Countess Mother but the dearly beloved of God her Father which is in Heaven To this Lady I say I applied my self and told her what I believe God Almighty had put into my heart and tongue That if she were present when the King came into England and so received with content in State which would not be long ere it was so she should then see waiting on him whom God had deputed for her Husband a Man unspotted of the flesh with whom she should be abundantly happy I after besought her second Daughter the Lady Elizabeth Boyl to stand forth before her I kneeled told her if she were then present she should see Him the Lord had deputed for her Husband CHARLS STUART Charls the Second King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith Here I could not for bear but seeing the glory of God and the Honour of this his Vice-Roy on earth to be so great I fell on my face as in the first of Corinthians the 14 and 25. And so falling down on his face he will worship God I take the God of Heaven to witness I know no other reason of it it never was the least in my intentions Since I have read the Prophet did so as in the 43 of Ezekiel the 2 verse and because the words matter and manner of his Government there is so very full to my business give me leave to observe them to you the rather because All of mine whether of Action or Interpretation are so long since past and by me this never observed untill Thursday the fourth of August 1654. as we accompt I look upon it as a further confirm to me of my so interpreting the Vision and over-ruled deportment in that action of falling upon my face the words are these And behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the East and his voice was like a voice of many waters and the earth shined with his glory and it was according to the appearance of the Vision I saw and I fell upon my face And so he goes on that the glory of the Lord filled his House See what his Providence hath guided me to do and all to observe to you were there but this in it it migh confirm you it is no delusion O Lord let the World as I do stand amazed love thee and fear thee for ever This done I told them I should go into
long since it was so All these together were grounds I say more than enough to beseech God for redress to a distracted people and a divided Land This Fryday I repaired to that Church of Lismore in it and places fit for Contempaltion I passed that day Saturday I could not but return thither again and there pen the subject matter of my prayer on that Thursday afternoon also my Dream that night And decline I must not nay could not to impart all so penned to the now most Honourable Earl of Cork and his so well accomplished Countess And home I must press them forthwith to re-build that Church of Lismore The reasons cannot but be good and many who considers the Lord should be publickly served and the people well instructed from the mouth of him whose lips should preserve knowledge and tongue speak a word in due season Such men are the men certainly sent and deputed by God himself for the better turning of sinners from the evil of their wayes to serve the everliving God His Temple 's the fittest place also where holiness is injoined us Beauty and decency not forbidden To this Earl and Countess of Cork I apply my self in their Garden and private Bed-Chamber they were pleased to hear me to the full I may not here omit to let you know that in the morning of that very day when going to pray for Gods guidance in this his business of rebuilding his House to his own glory and good of others and haveing omitted that morning to read any part of the Scriptures or Psalms appointed for the day the reading of Gods Word first a good way to prepare for acceptable devotion and praying aright from my knees I rose took the Bible and there opened to me the Prophet Haggai which tied my eye upon the place a Scripture God be mercifull to me I was not at all acquainted with Thus opened I could not go on to Devotion nor to read the Psalm untill I had read that Prophet out being but two Chapters directed and over-ruled as I firmly then and now believe by God Almighty For in the whole Book of God there is not any place fuller for the business I had in hand It is well worth your and all mens observe and retention that have too low esteem of Gods House But what speak I of too low esteem Indeed none at all that good is of the Churches or Temples built and set apart to the glory for the publick Worship and Service of God Humble men they seem to be A Stable or Kitchin will serve their turns and truely good enough too for many who have the impudence to abuse Gods House and endeavour there to seduce the more ignorant sort of people These Schrich-Owls cannot well endure the light of his House therefore have they their corners and sculking places A judicious and publick Auditory who love the place where his Honour dwelleth which they best love to frequent and thither go with prepared hearts to learn that they may understand what 's fit to practice These will not be decoyed by them With those it matters not what becomes of the House of God Yet observe and remember I beseech you what that Prophet Haggai there gives for reason of all the evils that were sent and continued upon the Land The not-building of Gods House The lying of that waste caused the Lord to have no delight in the people He there adviseth and enjoyns to rebuild his House then he assures them he will dwell with them and bless them beyond all compare nay he will take pleasure in them verse the 8. He there goes on He will shake the Heavens the Earth the Sea and the dry Land All is his to his for the glory of his House that he will fill with his own glory and bless the Land with peace and plenty such as was never seen untill the building or laying of that Foundation From that very time he blesseth them when they rebuild his House for his publick worship and service The Lord makes that a business fit for the imploy of another Prophet also the Prophet Zechary Of so much concernment you see it is with God But lest these things being Old Testament we should conclude they concern us not under the Gospel so wicked are we grown and so out of love with any thing that costs us ought in the Service of God or is most to his glory and honour that as any place is good enough so indeed any Calf fit to offer Thus shift we off the thing in which our happiness most lies that we may make our selves most miserable Foolish men why consider we not that Christs Courts on earth are his Churches And in representation thereof he hath a Throne in the midst of his Temple and sits thereon before whom all fall down and worship But these times call for our lamentation nay deep mourning for in this business we deal with the House of God and his Worship although we pretend much to both as Amnon dealt with his sister Tamar first Ravish her then Defile her and after turn her out of doors But to return Truely I could not but commend those two short but most full Chapters of this Prophet Haggai to that so Honourable Earl and Countess for the better dispose of them whose affairs of concernment are wisely managed by joynt consent Their quick discern a far off and sound judgement at home give them great advantages for the well-ordering of all their affairs Who having heard me out before I once so much as pressed them to it the Earl met me with this readiness to the work My Father intended the building of that Church I will do it It is onely by me for a short time deferred untill these troubles blow over or time afford a better opportunity for the carrying on of the work for the rebuild of which Church I have many things already fitted c. I most heartily wish and do so pray that there might be found in all men this readiness to make themselves happy here and so certainly bless'd hereafter You have the way love Gods House the place where his Honour dwells also his Ordinances with sound judgement and you cannot but be beloved of him When David and Solomon think to build God an House to his glory worship and service and do so see how the Lord declares himself in the second of Samuel to the 14. that he will establish their Houses for ever And are not the best of Kings the best of Patterns in Gods service who can and will do for thee also so governing or assisting to his glory as shall be most for thy lasting Honour and happiness here but everlasting hereafter Thus ends all then done most happily in nothing disappointed which God put me upon This happy day was Fryday March the 11. 1652. SECT II. A Short time after I fell into several sicknesses and diseases of that Countrey so that most of the following
sung by the Quire on the Leads his Star then appearing I my self shewed it to very many hundreds if not thousands witness this So that the Heavens haveing now again demonstrated Him the Seas waiting on him the Earth flourishing under him what remains but that we get our selves into a readiness to receive so great a blessing from so good a God Whom in mercy he hath appointed over us as I firmly believe The Lord of Broghill I confess I advised never to right or draw sword against this King For the war of Ireland I now understood it better than formerly and therefore did believe that to his Lordship who was born there at Lismore too as I conceive and resided in that Kingdom the devices and subtleties of the Church of Rome in that Rebellion or since in the carrying on of that War were better known than to his late Majesty whose goodness by some was too too much abused seeing it not with his own eyes but hearing it by others misrepresented His Lordship who had that great advantage as to be amongst them himself which was denied his late Majesty did see that his Unholiness of Rome had onely a modest design to suppress the Protestant Religion and cheat the King of that Kingdom that he might the better be soon usurper of all the rest This I now firmly believe was the ground of the Lord of Broghills fighting in that Kingdom So never at all against the King but for him And I do the rather believe this because I never had any Commission or desire to treat him other than with all respect as a person of Honour that had great and good accomplishments For I told him that day before I went out of his presence that I believed he never was against the King Further I never had desire to apply my self to any man in that Kingdom but his good self And see now as you shall anon how God honoureth that Man above all the sword-men in that Kingdō as Oliver Cromwel only of the sword-men the most in the Kingdō of England And more than to these two onely did I never apply my self sent of Heaven to these so glorious Saints first on Earth that they may be most glorious ones hereafter in Heaven But thou Church of Rome shalt fall as anon I shall shew you God will down with thee These two Persons of Honour have and shall the most of any two Subjects in the world help down with her I had all most forgot my then last observe to his Lordship A material on it is that although every man stood up bowed and Worshipped God following the Crown and with one consent crying out O Lord we praise thee for this Crown is of Heaven come we will follow and obey it yet I say this of all people wherein no one man dissented did not seem for number to exceed four or five hundred persons which occasioned from me then this observe to his Lordship That I feared our sins and the punishment for sin would almost lay waste our Land we having so highly provoked the Lord by our too much delighted in iniquities and rebellions of all sorts which we had just ground to bewail least they consumed us But truely since I have better hopes nay firmly believe I do that if we would turn to God with all our hearts and do the things here God adviseth to by me his unworthy servant in much mercy sent unto you that you might repent finde deliverance and so live abundantly happy this number of men which as I former observed past for the whole people in the Land of which none dissented I now hope and pray will most happily prove to be that number of men which represent the whole people of the Land and yet exceed not 4 or 5 hundred persons now of this Parliament to which purpose I beseech every good mans prayers and every bad mans amendment of life and for dissenting persons in that body believe as I do there will not be found one or not one to hurt us Who can be unhappy when all agree to fear God and honour their King keeping the commandments of the one the wholesom and well constituted Laws of the other in which doing there cannot but be happiness here and ever hereafter into which good old way of thine and ours good Lord be pleased to set us that we may be certainly blest our feet being then found in the way of thy steps Thus ended all I then observed and to my Lodging I retired to the Widdow Marricks house in Youghall SECT III. VEry few dayes past but by accidental rancounter I met and fell into discourse with a Gentleman who had commanded formerly a Troup of Horse in the Parliament service we argued and to this we came whether Kings were made so originally of God or the people the latter he held I the former which I proved to him out of the Word of God that first the Choice next the Anointing of them was of God onely and his Prophets sent by his command as in Saul David and others so not at all in the people 'T is true the people were all along commanded to pray for them and to obey them when thus set up by God So we ended the discourse and quietly parted Some four dayes after one Sunday morning as I best remember having lain most of that night in Meditation Prayer about day I did see sitting at my beds foot behinde the curtain a Man sent of God whilest He continued there sitting there fell a Showre of Fire thick and in drops like Rain all about my beds foot Full in my eye was the Spirit there sitting and the fire falling down Awake I conceive my self to have been for at that very time I called to minde the Fire that came down from Heaven upon the heads of the Apostles to their inablement Anon the Spirit called me by my name Walter Gostellow I indeavoured to reply did open my mouth tried twice but my tongue doubled in my mouth and I could not bring forth my words or speak He called me the second time by my name Walte Gostellow I indeavoured the second reply but my tongue doubled as formerly and I could not speak He called me the third time by my name Walter Gostellow to which I then answered Here I am he asked and said unto me Did you see the fire come down from Heaven as a shore of Rain I replied Yes I did he then strook by the Curtain looked me full in the face so I him He wept and said unto me you do well interpret Scripture clearly referring as I believe to this That the Choice of Kings this of ours especially is onely in God and not at all in the people This over I wrote to the Lord of Broghill that nights Vision for other I cannot call it besought his Lordship that once more he would be pleased to admit me before him there and then to be present also some
are alike The Commemoration also of the Nativity of our Lord the Descending of the Holy Ghost and divers other Superstitious things and times all which the true Prophets of the Lord have cried down and long since declined as most abominable and Superstitious Here lay his proof when I asked him who those Prophets were he told me the Godly Ministers and Prophets the Parliament had preferred appointed to hear preach I replied little onely told him some reasons that induced me to be of that judgement yet withall it was worth his consideration to remember what became of those Children that mocked the Prophet against whom the Lord sent Bears out of the Wood to tear them in pieces and devour them Well reconciled we were he told me it should no more be so neither did his Child any more provoke me but on the contrary I loved it and the Child me Upon a short time after he told me If I were a Prophet then he was a Dog I reminded him such expressions did not well become he might in that Prophesie unhappily of himself Dogs were without when Prophets were in Heaven I observed to him he did all without reason told him I forgave him and his Son formerly and that I prayed for both that God would be pleased to forgive them It is true I did so and do so that he would be pleased to have mercy upon them He bid me keep my prayers to my self he nor his had no need of them and desired them not He was often girding at me quiet I could not be for him I saw he loathed me which made me sometimes think on those evil Spirits that though they knew it was our blessed Lord yet raging asked him why he was come to torment them before their time Good he told me I could not be because I approved not of one Mr. Wood whom the Parliament power had put in Preacher at Youghall and settled upon him an handsom Sallery of some an hundred and twenty pounds per annum His name implies he may be Timber though some suspect he is not yet fitted for the building up the House of God God be pleased to make all men wise and better Certainly the best accomplished is fittest for his service This being Sunday and my keeper going then to hear this Mr. Wood Command is given none must come to me locked up I am Things thus hightening and his prejudice encreasing against me my Bed the night before taken from under me sent for away after he came from M. Woods Sermon my bolster sheets and whatsoever I had of his taken away from me by himself so great a zeal brought he home with him from his so good Preacher M. Wood. Well to this condition being reduced my self not very well not used to such affronts not such lodgeing the season winter truely I walked and prayed most of that night abandoned I now saw my self almost by all nothing but hard usage and aversness do I meet with in all men to this business of the Lords which much troubled me And truely I might here observe to you that I besought God Almighty to direct deliver and enable me to get from under those great oppressions of men which without him I could not overcome Observe I beseech you God withdraws not our helps but for a further advantage however our hopes may seem crossed Where his name may gain we cannot complain of loss 't was so here the work was the Lords and he was pleased to assure me I should grow from strength to strength untill I arrived at perfect peace in Zion and how that for his Glory Honour Mercy and Names sake he would bring it all to pass it should be marvellous in our eyes Thus beseeching the Lord I prayed and now do pray the Reader that he firmly believe as I do it being true I had that night this Vision or Call of the Lord Come away bring your writings come away reitterated just as the people you read before did when they saw the Light and Crown in the Heavens bowed to God and it it being of Heaven they all said Come we will follow it so here Come away bring your writings come away I could here truely observe to you that although my so civil Landlord was warm that night in a good Bed I cold and had none in Bed with him such another Saint his Wife educated married from the house of the once no less zealous I believe than these two the Lord Brook whose Servants they were either both or one Yet on a sudden she riseth and runneth the strong water is fetched my Landlord very sick nay very ill his Childe had formerly been so This strong water was to be fetched out of the next Room where I was pounded up so know it I did indeed his wife told me the reason of her haste and coming Well the strong water he had and my prayers also for his amendment and Gods forgiveness to him and though he formerly bade me keep them to my self he nor his had no need of them his Child I believe fared not the worse for me for it after loved me when well himself then had them as also the strong water if of any validity God Almighty have the glory he had the recovery then but a Fool is not alwayes to be answered in his folly This I should not have observed but that it is in reverence to what himself hath very often told me he was that Thomas a Diddimus that should not believe any thing of my Prophesie untill he saw it come to pass the rather because it was against those whom God approved of and set up to his glorie therefore he took the liberty to call me Traitor as to them and false Prophet as in reverence to their Godly Ministery such was his zeal but whether well guided or of God that 's the question But I leave him in his Dog-kennel for so his then habitable house was formerly called as himself told me one time and truely me thinks upon this account and action it may well retain the former name if it hath been discontinued Dog kennel Day being come I penned a Letter presenting the whole Vision Come away bring your writings come away to the Secretary of the Lord of Broghill entreating him that he forthwith impart it to his Lord and others concerned for the ordering of affairs in those parts beseeching they would after address made to God Almighty for his guidance forthwith dispose of me as he should please to direct them to do They I humbly conceive did so for that day or the next morning I had word sent me that I might go whither I would Yet observed to me it was by that Gentleman which brought me my enlargement that I should not proclaim the King in the streets Truely I was never guilty of any such madness neither did it so much as once come into my thoughts Had I not been guided by God in
will revealed in his word which is to fear God honour the King not to side with those that are given to change but to keep his Commandments do the thing that is Just Honourable and good that is to all men as we would they should do unto us If we will take any thing by violence let it be the Kingdom of Heaven which ought to be our devoir not other mens rights whether of birth or estates which ought to be our restore Write O Lord all these things in our hearts and incline us to keep thy Law which is the Commandments of God and not of men I have now done referring to all of Dream and my own Interpretation of that yet what God was pleased to have me observe also finished some of my Visions which refer to this as I humbly conceive most material and therein I have observed what I could not but observe For that of Prophesie truely I believe I may without any delusion or spirit of pride call it the words and good pleasure of the ever living God and so far am I from believing it to be other or that it will not come to pass that I could not depart Youghall before I had given it under my hand sealed with the Coat of the Right Honourable Lord of Broghill and upon my knees delivered it before no less than twenty other Honourable and good witnesses that if it came not to pass they put me to death Now that I may not appear other than what I was at that time to the praise and honour of God well in my sences not mad but true to what I have received of the Lord no impostor nor yet a lying Prophet or one that would delude by lying vanities and speak when and what not commissioned of the Lord I do here again confirm agree unto and consent that if it come not to pass the things in the Prophesie I refer to onely which are of the most wonderfull and strangest nature there is the most improbability by outward appearance if these come not to pass I say I consent that you first shew me to the World from place to place afflicting my body and after that burn my book and by death put an end to my dayes as I conceive deservedly I ought to suffer if I speak as from the Lord when never sent For allowance of which to me it seems there is good warrant in that Deuteronomy the eighteenth Chapter from the twentieth verse to the end being the word of God to which words of God and its interpretation I refer all I have said and Prophesied to be tried by as being the most sure rule against and contrary to which word of God no Prophesie or Prediction of man can stand as I firmly believe which indeed the Lord Cromwell well observed to me when I gave him the knowledge of my Prophesie by word of mouth But if this be besides Scripture yet not contrary to Scripture then I say in my Judgement it is a work fit for the mission of a Prophet or if it be for further explain of some things in Scripture not untill now or yet fully revealed or well understood then also hath it warrant but any new or giddy Tenets I will never force to my own destruction out of this holy word O Lord which to do I believe is the greatest sacriledge in the whole world But willingly I do as I wish all men would refer all to thy most holy word of which I conceive wise men and the body of that ministery thou hast sent into the world to be the fittest Interpreters to our well understanding of it for to and with such thou hast promised to be assisting with thy holy Spirit for their enablement unto the end of the world and that neither Hell nor the Devil shall ever prevail over or against them And those thus blest and so sent I believe are not the Pope nor his Cardinals who for their own ends make marchandise of the Kingdom of Heaven that they may keep up their own upon earth so do Schismaticks others to the dishonouring of God the scandalizing of his Protestant Religion which shall now flourish beyond all compare But those shall suddenly fall and melt away as greater and lesser snow-bals this is certain And now methinks I hear some as I read those did in the first of the Acts of the Apostles and the sixth ask our Lord Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom Truely I know nothing to the contrary but it will be so if you will but break off from your so much beloved and too long lain in sins and impieties it may now presently be Certainly there is no better way to hasten its coming yet the next verse tells you It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Read it the case there just as ours The Scepter departed from Judah the Government forst out of the hands of the Jews the people desire nothing more than the return of it Nay the Apostles themselves are the Persons that enquire if it may not be at this time Yet observe our Lords answer even to them It is not for you to know what the Father hath put in his own power for shame seek the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness which doing all other things shall in due time be given unto you Your selves are the cause it is not already come to pass by your continuance in sin Suffer me but a few words and I have done there is an end you hear of all the Wars in the Christian World but as yet you see it not God be thanked for what you do see more probability than ever Is it not very far advanced here on earth Have we not that already with some Nations People we never had before leagues of perpetual peace as I have heard and are we not with others in treaty Nay very far agreed towards that purpose Who well understand the Scriptures know it is very frequently in them used that very expression by the Prophets sent of God the present tense for the future there is an end that is it is so decreed in Heaven and it shall be so on Earth it being the ordinary phrase of the Prophets by reason of the infallible certainty of the events to speak of things to come as already past the instances are obvious and infinite See here another motive to repentance that you may forthwith reap this so great a blessing of peace on Earth that which makes Heaven so desireable and lovely having in it the blessing of peace And yet will you be mad to go on in sin and make the Prophets sent to you for amendment of life mad also as your iniquities continued in will do it did so to that good Prophet Hosea the 9. and the 7. as before I hasten to an end there are 18 persons you read of that shall never dye but be
taken up into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that never shall have end These are the very words of this the Lords Prophesie his almighty dictatings of which words and their strangeness I may say as the prophet Zacharia did in a vision the Lord gave him referring to the rebuild of his Temple restore of his worship and delight in his service to which all are enjoyned to be assisting begging and inviting them as mine doth first to seek the Kingdom of Heaven his glory worship and service on earth This Prophet Zacharia in the 5. verse of that 4. Chapter you may there read having seen that Vision was asked by the Angel of the Lord if he knew what the Vision shewed him was he answered no my Lord. A second time he answered the very same words in the 13 verse no my Lord read on and you shall finde informed he was by the Angel that Prince and Nobels the High Priest and the other Priests under him are the Persons the two Olive Trees betoken and the Candlesticks there lighted let us see the perfection of beauty and brightness the Lord will have to be in his house Certainly where holiness is commanded beauty richness and decency were never forbidden in the house of God And now to do this doth not the two green Olive Trees on each side drop golden Oil to carry on the work King House of Peers Bishops Priests Deacons see here all your duties Prince Priest people must be assisting with purse and hand to the rebuild of Gods house for his publick Worship and service which when done nay doing observe how he blessed the Land never the like before for peace and plenty And here learn also not to wonder if I yet know not in what manner to understand those words they shall never die There was a time untill the Angel gave that so emiment Prophet to understand what himself did reply to he understood not A Prophesie is a wonder sent to posterity least they complain of want of wonders it is a letter sealed and sent which to the bearer sometimes is but Paper but to the receiver and opener is full of power To such another non ultra was the Prophet Daniel brought in his 12. Chapter and the 8. verse where he saith I heard but I understood not what should be the end of these things the next verse tells that Prophet the words were closed up and sealed untill the end the last verse of that Chapter assures him he shall stand in the Lot at the end of the dayes A thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message as all this his Prophesie is yet observe when things of such nature have been dictated to the most blessed Saints in holy writ as our ever blessed Lady and others from these we hear of no more objections no more interrogations The faithfull heart when it once hears or knows the good pleasure of God Almighty argues no more but sweetly rests in a quiet expectation Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word And thus without all sciscitation we are to go blind-fold whither he will lead us All disputations with God after his will known arise from infidelity Great is the mystery of Godliness and if we will give nature leave to cavil we cannot be Christians as good B. Hall observes T is true we read in holy Writ that wise valiant and good Kings and other persons of Honour have been so eminently just holy communicably good to all here on earth as of them it is said They shall not die Nay we see their renown lives now That is the meaning of not dying there in one place and though to wicked mens sense such Godly persons seem to die as in the book of Wisdom the 3 Ch. second verse yet it did but seem to them so dead they are not their renown shall never die Again we read of Enoch and Elias those good Prophets so lived they with God though here on earth as that he took them to himself most miraculously by translation never suffering them to lie buried in the earth nor their bodies to return to dust whose Souls were all heavenly mindedness and conversation so continually above that the took their bodies thither also they did never die Be it in either of these two senses here is as much honour happiness as mortality is capeable of agreeable to thy word O Lord it must be or it can never stand nor as I believe come to pass But my hand is upon my mouth thy will be done and by man for ever be thou praised O Lord and now seeing the events of things are the best commentaries upon Prophesies the best way for these eighteen persons all others is to walk with God as Enoch did all his dayes on earth in a Godly sorrow for sin weeping for his own and others and then taken up into Heaven also they may be as Enoch was who never died but was translated into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that never shall have end You have heard what the Lord is doing The conversion of the Jews and Heathen at hand also the downfall of the Church of Rome things mighty strange and wonderfull which to pass he will bring for his own glory name and mercies sake making these things marvellous in our eyes And did he not also formerly work wonderfull things that we Gentiles might be wrought upon to come into the knowledge of his Law whose fulness is now with the Jews to come in The Heathen a people that have not heard of the Scriptures the Jews not believing in the Gospel who although the beloved seed of Abraham to whom the promise is for conversion yet an obstinate crooked and wilfull generation Even to convert Schismaticks we may also look for signs in or from Heaven all whose conversion we have little hopes to see effected otherwayes than by signs wonders in or from Heaven For this sixteen hundred years past the Gospel not heard of by the one not heeded by the other who remembers not our selves cost our Saviour deer and many wonders he did before the people would confess him the Son of God in Heaven signs on earth opening the Graves the dead bodies shewing themselves to those that knew them himself ascending up into Heaven also in the presence of many witnesses need of all for conversion I have done But remember Reader and all you that hear of what the Lord is doing and bringing by his Almighty power of his good will to pass in the World for the honour of his name and this professed Protestant Religion and good of such as fear him Take warning go not on in your sins break off by speedy and unfeigned repentance and practice you as well as invite others to a more holy obedience than ever least that when God giveth deliverance to his Church and people you be found to be of the number
of his adversaries to whom he renders vengeance at the same time Remember I have warned you and believe me also I could not have any quiet untill I had done so Thus in all ages God hath sent his Prophets to forewarn before he consume a people or in mercy deliver them I have done my duty do you yours repent and live The number was but few I told you though all that were then in being who when they saw this Crown in heaven worshipped God and said This is of Heaven we will follow it Which when done with my self hear we did pleasant sounds in Heaven and saw the earth shine with plenty amongst men good will all praising God and participating those blessings I once more tell you they were but a small number make haste be you of it Before judgement is gone out repentance is seasonable but you may cry to late From this Citie was the Kingdom fyrced let O Lord if it be thy good pleasure the inhabitants tears and thy mercy spare it from an heap of ruin a City that hath been and yet is the harlot mother of Bastard conceptions and prodigious births confusion she hath brought forth that hath filled the world and land to her dishonour with God and men Spare us O Lord we beseech thee and have mercy upon us even upon us also thy most unworthy servants Here I have ended but because God hath as I formerly observed to you of his wise delay suspended the publishing of this book for his own time which certainly is the best and fittest as also that my Dependency on him may be the more as his mercies the greater when deliverance afforded us I must yet a little go on and one insert more be pleased to allow me it being for the General good Let me therefore present your eye and entertain your ear as of Gods mercy he hath done mine for your benefit upon the day and night of the 5. of November last being our Lords day on which we did commemorate Gods deliverance afforded us from the Gun-powder Treason I dare not but do it mark it it is considerable of the Lord himself being the Lord of Hosts who hath delivered us doth deliver us and will deliver us all good grounds to trust him and a set Text of Scripture it is for that day to be Treated on A good Act of Parliament we have for the thankfull and perpetual commemoration of that so great a mercy that God was pleased then and so to deliver Our so good so wise so well-accomplished King and his posterity to sit upon his Throne and to sway the Scepter of these Kingdoms for ever as we see God hath now so appointed whose ways admit of no variation or shadow of turning Deliver he did we see the house of Peers and Persons of Honour in duty waiting upon their King Deliver he did the wise and learned Authors of the Protestant Church and Religion with them also the Judges both together the best interpreters of his word and his Laws Deliver he did also those Worthies of the house of Commons called thither by their King and sent thither by the wise obedient and then quiet people of the land who were and because so shared in that deliverance and long enjoyed they and we the Blessings that succeeded of peace order riches beauty in Religious worship of God Almighty in his Churches to the wonder as well as to the envie of the world Here was a Parliament of Gods and good mens choise and blessing For Majesty and Honour well met together And this when so he delivers from that horrid unparrall'd Treason until those times the like not heard of And what to do I beseech you but to let us see how precious in his sight we are when met together as those to fear God honour our King love brotherly love all applying our selves to live and do according to his will revealed in his word and our known Laws the onely rule we should go by and conform unto applying our selves to these not to our own willdered thoughts for confusion covetuousness rebellion irreligion murder of those people whose persons peace and propriety we come to preserve and maintain not for our self-ends to kill that we may divide the spoil Something like him I have heard of in the Church of Rome who upon the words spoken in a vision to the Apostle S. Peter Arise kill and eat all things are now Common to please the then Pope of Rome at difference with the Venetians gave this gloss upon that Text that is saith he your Holiness may make War with the Venetians kill them and devour their estates up and do it arise take kill and feed upon them Thus his unholiness suitable Cleargy force mis-interpretations of holy Writ to their own and others destruction Peter's successors they pretend to be and in the worst of things they certainly follow him nay exceed him draw their sword they do cut not off the ear onely with Peter but the heads of Kings and Potentates which wicked action our Lord reproves healing the person wounded when but an ear to let us see his Kingdom was not to be carried on by the sword and shew us he doth he had no need of a fighting Clergy he made no Apostle to offer violence no Bishop in Buff with back-sword to help on with Presbytery no Priest or Deacon to kill and supplant that he might get his more pious and therefore more peaceable brothers living because it is better than his own which when he hath by violence gotten he inricheth himself but starves or poysons those he pretended to feed better and do more good for both in body and soul No these are not the men fit to build God a Church he needs no such hackers or hewers in Field or Pulpit such furious fighters and rash zealous Clergy Go on to imitate Peter further the very next apprehension of danger they deny their Lord and Saviour for swearing him also if once in custody or times of persecution come upon them then they are Sidonians or Samaritanes no more Jews and they have a Temple not yet dedicated to any God which you their profitable master so they get by you shall call them and it what you please for they are resolved to side with the seeming strongest to get by so doing Cura Romana non capit ovem sine lana Oh! and have not we such Peters if but one too many but the more the pitie well I have shewed you what those furious boote-feux have done set us and the Christian World on fire I would to God I could shew you them imitating that blessed saint Peter repenting which would be not onely ours the Churches and their own rejoycing at the conversion of such sinners there is joy in Heaven and though by words actions misunderstood they have engaged us with Curse ye Meros so carried on the cause falsly perswading they are the Lords
Battels outward success going on that side what will become of a Church whose depraved judgements corrupt head and rotten Members are thus ill principled this Prophesie tells you They the Church of Rome and their Factors shall fall what is become of such a Parliament or Parliaments who have been so principled your selves see gone out they are like a snuf of the worst lights left a stinck behinde them whereas the memory of the just and good God imbalms for our imitation and is not spoken of nor remembred otherwayes than most odoriferously even as the sweet Oyl poured on our Saviour leaving a perpetual renown in all ages of sweetness and goodness to the immortal honour of that Saint that did it as in Matthew the 26 vers 13. whose memorial for good works shall never die but still lives and shall for ever Well that day the 5 of November you see is properly due for thanks to Gods delivering a Parliament made up of King Lords and Commons Let no man therefore dare to have thoughts of promoting any other but such a one except it be by praying to God and patiently waiting his good pleasure humbly and fervently praying that these worthy Gentlemen and Protector now met in Council for the general good who cannot but know and finde themselves imperfect without the better parts of the body of a Parliament whilst themselves are less profitable Members than they might be to Gods glory Religions luster the Kingdoms strength and peace also the peoples rejoycing Let us not cease to pray I say that they forthwith apply themselves to be so compleated as may best please God and be most warrantable by the Laws of this Land which ought not to be broken through nor can they be nulled but by the powers that quallified them to become binding They are the very words I heard themselves observe upon the Tryal of the Earl of Straford when proceeded against for making his paperwarrants or messengers of force to out-value being sent out against any subject the then Laws established which had their stamp put upon them and onely made currant by the assent of the Crown the consent of the House of Peers and allowance of the House of Commons all proceedings in any other case pretend what they will it was Treason Law I have not I confess my ignorance those Gentlemen certainly knew this to be Law and gave it so there but good conscience I am sure I have and ought to have there ought not to be fast and loose when we please that we may the better practice wickedness by a Law of our own making thus we strengthen our selves and would be exempt from punishment when we do amiss resolving to live according to the liberty we please to take in the fairest pastures of other mens demeans and birth-rights making our fences to others every way offensive but for our self as much security as knavery can contrive violence maintain Now if they will have us keep this 5 of November as most commendable it is we should to Gods glorie and our thankfull rememberance let them also keep us up such a Parliament and warrantable Laws as God in mercy then delivered and continued us if they will not then I advise to appoint another day that all those may meet who with the Devil Jesuits and Sons of Rebellion Sectaries or others call them what you will all who have made their wicked plots take by seeming righteousness onely pretensions to reform Religion amend the Laws and circumcise superfluous things as evil counsellors or known offenders yet have blown up rooted out and for ever destroyed as much as in them lay Kings Religion Liberty the peace and honour of this Nation let the lovers of those confusions meet in a thanks-giving to their God for their successes also and let us see who they are and then if God be the Lord serve him if Baal serve him for we may not longer halt in things of God and Religion declare your selves you wicked ones be no longer Hypocrites and evil doers the Devil hath helped you to do that above ground in the shape of an Angel of light that he could not effect under ground by powder and your younger brothers the Jesuits I have heard of those that have arrived at their wicked ends and purposes by more bloud-shed than you but never of any that came to them by more Perjury Hypocrisie than those that were not long since our Egyptian Tax-masters the scandal of the Protestant Religion and dishonour of our Nation Remember I have advised you to repent and do your first and best works from whence you are fallen or else know your judgement sleeps not a day a night a moment will do it the Sun rose and shined gloriously that very day the evening whereof would have shewed you Sodom Gomorrah her neighbour fornicating Cities all in ashes Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee as in the 12 of Acts vers 23. on a sudden in a moment the Angel of the Lord smote Herod and he was eaten up of Worms who knows not that in the twinkling of a eye we shall be changed and our Saviour comes to some surprizing them as a thief in the dead of night and sleep of sin I before shewed you your general condition from whence Gods Thunder onely can awake but I would not end in a judgement the Lord knows my heart I pray for all your amendments and happiness not a Scotch prayer for all your Gueds but that you may repent and live Now give me leave to present your eye with what God did mine that last Sunday night being Gun-powder Treason having that day received the most blessed Communion of the body and bloud of our Lord beseeching him for patience that I might bear his Cross which indeed was cast upon me the Saturday and Sunday night of that very day just as my Goaler did at Youghall so here called I am Seducer false Prophet deluded not sent of God foolish babbler and worse See how doth God comfort me when man thus misuseth me just as when my Goaler so abused me and took my bedding from under me and locked me up then the Lord that very night afforded me deliverance and comfort by his Vision and call Come away bring thy writings come away and I did so for this his Call opened the Prison doors to me so here that very night for my consolation the Lord shewed me very strange appearances in Heaven for beauty and curious works as first a vail or covering which after I had well observed passed away then the Heavens forthwith opened and there did I see one who was just for favour as our Lord is in his general Pictures Portraited and represented to us which sight ravished my Soul and brought from me this expression O it is the coming of the Son of Man for the conversion of sinners forthwith a vail came over me that I could see
no longer into the Heavens I then run and hasted to get from under that vail that I might again look up where I was so much ravished above in the Heavens so pressing forward that I might get from under the vail and so I was taken from the ground and so moved untill I came beyond the vail which impeded my sight being got from under it I looked up again into Heaven where I saw what I cannot utter or set out unto you Help me O Lord my soul is too narrow to express that glory and ravishment thou shewedst me there and then the Heavens yet opening I saw a beautifull place much about the bigness of a quadrangle of a Colledge and in such a figure also within which sate some four and twenty persons all in order as being in four straight lines from side to side so adorning the whole they were all arrayed in long white robes richly Crowned they were and he that late in the middest the richest on each hand of him sate also one very richly arrayed and Crowned all of them in order and beauty beyond any expression I was given to understand it was the coming of the Son of man I can say no more onely tell you what it was not there was in it no disagreeing no confusion no striving for priority no supplanting of one the other all obedience all beauty all holiness every one continuing in his own station lovely throughout beyond all compare or expression certainly it was to let me see that at hand his coming is for the conversion of sinners if they would but get themselves in readiness to receive and meet him with prepared hearts he would come and dwell with them in beauty and holiness for our amendment or else take them to himself unto either of which happy conditions O Lord fit us and we shall be fitted I end believing God hath now made this book fit for the press and you Observe to amendment of life Help out O Lord with the book and into thy favourable loving kindness the sons of men this day is the first leaf of this book Printed to finish which if thou help not O Lord I cannot give it birth I have not this day on penny in the world yet I doubt not by thy providence this very day to carry on thy work this book nor thy power and loving kindness to effect the whole Prophesie in it contained And now O Lord be thou pleased to help so thy most unworthy servant and carry on this thy great work strange and mighty to thy own glorie and good of all men as I set forth the truth of all and desire from the bottom of my heart that thou O Lord mayest have the glory of all and we men the comfort O Lord I may not doubt thou wilt do it for thy glory mercy and name sake I see it already done as thou hast promised though it be thus strange yet it is thy work and thou wilt do it that it may become marvellous in our eyes Thus I end in the very words which ends my own Commission in truth also be pleased O Lord to help all men of thy goodness as thy most indeared yet unworthy servant From my House the 10 of Novemb 1654. Walter Gostelow A POST-SCRIPT Clearing the Author from Guilt of Pride or Falshood WHat my Book conceived in sin and before born or come into the World but five sheets out and in three of them shall I be suspected to be guilty of pride and falsehood Certainly I will bestir my self the rather because a wise and good man tells me he fears the good intented to Gods glory Religious luster and the Kings interest will all suffer in the publishing of it and upon these grounds he perswaded me to desist from Printing which I can no more refuse to do than I can to breath live what shall I wound any of these in the least Three things as precious to me as had I ten thousand lives they should all not come into the scale with one of them Moreover I have presented it in my intentions to the Lord Protector for his protection and defence and shall I not present it innocent I know him set up to be a terrour to the evil doer and deceitfull man but to calumniated injuriously oppressed honest and innocent men a Protector and comfortable Defender with all reverence and humility be it spoken thy glory O Lord shall have the praise of this happy Post-script I know it is for a farther good to me as well as for the worlds clearer satisfactions by such seeming oppositions and wise delays hath thy Providence reserved it and me in the fittest time to become publick and for the fullest discovery of truth it is now made much longer than formerly intended that all things time and circumstances may be fully examined and clearly inquired into if there may or can be made appear any ground for suspected delusion or visible falshood I fear neither the charge as Gunpowder makes a noise but you shall quickly see it turned into smoke and and vanish I am to demonstrate unto you why I should not justly be condemned of pride for these words in the 55 page O Lord let the World as I do stand amazed love thee and fear thee for ever what Arguments of innocency brought to convince of evil be pleased to look back but two pages the 53. and so on you have the reason of those words God of his providence guiding me at that very time to so full a Scripture which I there observed for my confirmation in that my over-ruled deportment of falling upon my face Haveing read that portion of Scripture not till then known to me 7 months after done and my self then penning what I there Printed I could not but in a thankfull obedience with all possible humility in my private Chamber fall upon the ground and praise the Lord for it I beseech you let it not be laid to my charge as pride be pleased to read it rather O Lord let the whole World as we all should do stand amazed at thy goodness therefore praise and love thee for ever This will take me in and I have what I intended there The next is in the 56 page where I say I expected more alteration already ready than I have yet seen and believe I did the Summer past would have made the certain things to come to pass much more apparent before now than they yet are Here confessing my self mistaken is inferred I clearly demonstrate that sent of God as one of his Prophets I cannot be for they are alwayes guided in words of truth and certainty I could refer you to what follows and fasten this yet non-accomplishment upon your selves by reason of your continuance in sins and impieties and well might too but apply I will my self to satisfie reasonable men in all possible wayes and things yet observe before I end that very Section in the two last pages
of it 68 and 69. you shall there read that I being brought from what I had of Vision dream or my own dictates there is the cause of those words to that which is certainly Prophesie immediately following and the words of God by which onely I abide as infallably true and will come to pass going on you may there see the Scripture quoted What is the rest but as Chaff to Wheat whether Dream Vision or Dictate by that Prophesie I will abide whilest I am in this World yea O Lord though men attempt to kill me I will yet trust in thee So that all considered I doubt not but to be cleared in sober mens judgements Next in page 63 I there tell you you are unworthy of a man sent unto you your eyes have seen what Arise Evans said already fulfilled and this methinks might free me from this cavil together with the known hard measure as imprisonment and affronts late times have put upon him whilest the good man other I can not call him hath for your good indured so much and almost worn himself out that you might turn and live yet him you asperse Too many of you miscalling him Mad Foolish Babbling mistaken fellow I confess I knew him not untill my return from Ireland many times I visited him and he me when I lodged at Saint Jameses upon this imploy waiting for the Protector I still reserved my self in all things of what I have here Printed Curious I was to know the manner of things coming so to his observe the times also his Government I enquired after looked into him as narrowly as I could observed the effects and fulfill of things Predicted and what more I could think on still reserving my self having understood the manner and in particular his alwayes being directed to the word of God in conformity to that his word advising all men to turn from sin that God might return in mercy I could not but conclude him sent of God for that very imploy if this be to be deceived then am I also but I suspect it not in the least he is for the rebuild of Gods House the restore of his Ministers and Worship the invite-home of the King a far greater rule given to him of God than to any of his Predecessors also the conversion of the Jews and the spreading of the Protestant Religion to which purpose and speedier invite of him home Oliver Cromwell shall be highly subservient when done the Land and people blest This being his principles in all this and more he is in the right and sent of God he is I will not cry any of you mercy for what I have said of him it is too little he deserves more he will go for a man sent of God of whom you are unworthy whose good admonitions you seem to contemn as you have done his person but mark the end of that man it will be happines I suspect yours me thinks I can right him in what you so much slight him it is now come to my minde he told you the King should be restored by May last as you say observe now upon the 3 January 3 Moneths before that May I tell you from God he is and shall be here Crowned King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the faith in Heaven it s done and so I proclaimed him on the 12 of January 1653. In the Church of Youghall as commanded of God Now to us he is come I see him already come so might you also but that you have neither faith nor good works in my last letter at the opening of this Parliament I wrot to the King these very words Sir I see you already come to your crown and dignity onely I do not sensibly touch you but restor'd you are Sâ— do but stand still a little put all iniquity from your heart believe in God and your self with others shall see it so suddenly God will have it so you may not doubt it The next and last also I hope I am sure the greatest to give satisfaction to is how I dare be so proud as to stile my self so often a Prophet nay a great Prophet also Here O Lord in all possible humility of soul and body I do acknowledge my self to be the most unworthiest of the Sons of men and well know that of merit there is not any thing on this side Hell but it is too good for me beseech thee onely O Lord I do for thy Almighty guidance and deliverance herein thou canst do it and make this word good and I know wilt of thy mercy thy honour being at stake I dare not doubt thy power nor distrust thy loving kindness who hath assured that I should by thy enablements grow from strength to strength until I arrived at perfect Peace in Sion it is the introduction to thy commission given me for my consolation and inablement in this thy imploys Yet I will give you some reasons to beget belief in you also and true ones too or else may the ground open and swallow me if I be guilty of any conspiracy and Hell for ever continue me if in this I am rebellious against thee my God it is the black portion of false Prophets may it be mine also that quickly too if I have any Commission for this but thine or any aim more than thy glory the reasons of my belief I will give you truly and as they fell out some of which I formerly concealed in modesty because they referred so much to my own honour yet I now see when calumniated I am and suspected of pride God clears me and more than recompences me he will now give Honour to me and mine yea such Honour as I was never in the least worthy of Reason 1. VVhen I was the second time before the Lord of Broghall in the presence of those persons of Honour desired declaring the vision of the fire that fell down from Heaven upon me in my bed and the man sent of God called me three times by my name Walter Gostelow asked me if I did see the fire that came down from Heaven whch I replyed to as you there may read yea I did then I say that second time being before his Lordship and those present declaring that and others of my visions and revelations in particular one that related to my Eldest Son Richard Gostelow these words last of all on a sudden came from me His Father is a Prophet and his Fathers Father was a Prophet astonished I was my very next action amazeth me also speaking to the Lady Elizabeth Boyl appointed of God Wife to our King CHARLES STVART when I come to tell that Lady so I am thrown upon my face thus over-ruled I was in these two actions of words and demenor any reason for these two proceedings I cannot give neither of them having ever been in my thoughts or purpose but when done to none present more strange than to my self Now mark Gods
fruits making their conversion to appear as good Zacheus did when truely converted who shewed it by his words and actions If I have wronged any man I restore to him fourfould and for the rest of my goods I give the one half of them to the poor you have it in the 19 of Luke verse 8. if they would nor thus uprightly turn repent live truely they should uprightly and perpendicularly hang together as being brethren in iniquity and this I believe would be pleasing to God and man whom they have injured and are indebted to you wicked Judges Committees and Lawyers repent of your Club-Law too long practised upon the persons Estates of men of worth and honour imprisoning the one devouring the other tell me if you can from whence had you these presidences for Law not from God he is a God of mercy not from his word that 's a word of truth not from our well constituted and better known Laws those are for defence not offence Come I will tell you whence you are you say you are of the seed of Abraham but you do the works of you Father the Devil and if I mistake not it was to men of your profession and practise our Saviour said so that could not erre Some gave that for Law which was not when time was they did help to undo a good King and run a way after others of you have played the same game since and it is not improbable will shew us such a trick also but stay a little and take some of my counsel before you stir what you gave and took for Counsel was too dearly bought neither worth what 't was sold for nor at all fit to be followed those you have destroyed or decoyed of your own party will shortly tell you so be you ruled by me for the time to come if you go on to practice in the Law do in all your cases and causes as I have done in this of mine presented in this book Open it aright carry it one no other ways present it not falsly in any one circumstance speak the whole truth which done pray to God Almighty that he would be pleased to give you a sentence in favour if in truth and uprightness of heart be assured he will desire onely that the Lord may have the glory of it and man his Creature the benefit of his just but mercifull and righteous judgements My imploy is not to flatter any one of you or others I never spoke word to Sir John in my life the accomplishments of a judge was found upon that Trial as well as others to be in the Prisoner at the Bar Sir John Stowel in his fixed heart was sincerity resolution and uprightness in his head was wisdom and discerning in his mouth and tongue were the words of truth the Grand jury were those worthies that gave hin what you Mr. Post-Master Prideaux laboured to beguile him of the benefit of his Articles not you onely but the rest of the Black Robe that quacked after you the decoy upon his left hand all of you stole a heard of Goats you are Hoofs and Horns you have for offence in the very end of my Prophesie if you repent not you see the place you are doomed to as well as the condition you are found in when others are taken up into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that never shall have end the Sheep that then stand before the Judge of all men shall go to the right hand but the Goats to the left will any of you evil doers ye go on to sin against conscience for the accursed love of the World do no more so hear and take my counsel make not haste haste haste Post-haste to be Rich run not into destruction covetuousness is known to be the root of all evil Do you Sr. for the time to come nay let us all do as new born Babes desire the pure milk of the Gospel not your Law may we become O Lord as little Children Infants unspotted of the flesh the World and the Devil thus being Heaven is then open to us and that 's a Kingdom For your Infant Common-wealth truely it died almost as soon as born or named I fear not Innocent also how have you lead me out of the way I must return to Croppredy where I was named an Infant From Croppredy-Field his Majesty went into the West the same Summer there God gave him such another success but greater over a greater number out of their hands he took all the Militia but their persons go free not a man perisheth by his good will Who would not have expected that these mercies God having cast his Enemies into and under his own dispose and all pardoned who would not I say have presumed these carriages of mercy and unparalell'd clemency would have won his Subjects to a better obedience than forthwith to fight him afresh O my God I heard his majesty speak these words at Southam in Warwick-shire the very day before Edge-hill fight he being then and there importuned presently to hang 80 men that night taken To perswade him to it thus some reasoned the Lord of Essex is near you the present doing it will deter your Enemy make his men that love you not run away whose fear if not affection will be your great advantages they were so many and so powerfull that thus counselled as indeed my good King had but his good conscience mercy and a few persons of Honour on his side of which very small number was the Lord Henry Wilmot and the Lord Willowby Son to the Earle of Linsey whose Father was mortally wounded the next day at Edge-hill of which he died in a few dayes after nay so bold and so pressing were these in his presence that they told him Sir if we must take these Rebels and you pardon them when can you hope to see an end of this Rebellion they went on to importune him to hang but 70 of them yet still to do it presenlly as therein being his advantage his Majesty wisely and mercifully replied his design was to make a conquest of their judgements and affections by clemency and forgiveness and not to murder their persons they grew more impatient pressed him then to hang 60. his Majesty found out wise delays for not doing of that presently to 50 to 40 to 30 to 20 they fell still his Majesty stood unmoveable at last some of them swore as I take it thereby to dispose him that passing the other day by Coventry the Enemy had taken and hang'd four of his men to second him another said they had hang'd five of his more of them went on three of theirs two of anothers his Majesty to get rid of them and it may be to enquire into the truth of it also first I did so told thē he would presently take an order with them now see the order taken by him twelve inlarged and of them continued not a man suffered in his
thee must terminate but the Kingdom thou shalt be taken up into is that of Jesus Christ's that never shall have end Wharton where art thou what the best Astronimer at sometime a Prophet and doth not thy rich sublime Transcendent wit and Pen yet appear make us Te Deums and Laudamus Domine I have left thee a break in this Book more than fill it and the world of good hearts with Gods thy Kings just praises but thy own duty were not those thy verses I have so much inquired after as well as thy most worthy self since returned from Ireland thine or Cleavelands sure but not yet so happy as to see either Verses that Prophesied the King being inbalmed at Windsor the Garter and Spur should lie dormant untill some Prophet sent of God should raise them from there locked up and sealed Wardrop raised they are make haste adorn them thou hast for thy enablement a Mine of Excellencies Cleaveland and thee have all give God and your King the glory of it they have your hearts already pen us Songs and Praises to our God the Quoristers and Church-men did sing us such at St. Pauls Cross upon his Birth-day that good example was given by the Angels who did so at the glorious King of Kings Birth-day who now sends our King CHARLS the Second his Vice-Roy on earth to rule the Sons of men Honours he brings with him from the Almighty fountain to be derived and conferred upon such as fear God Obey and Honour this his Vice-Roy our King C. S. Come now come O Cromwell take not a share but thy full measure God judgeth not as man doth we thought thee not at all worthy now shall that celestial Colour Order Ribbon of the Garter I had the Honour to sell it to my King but never thought the least to be so Honoured as to repossess him of it from God Come I say let this badge of the greatest Honour now on Earth given from the greatest King thine also C. S. let it now be put on thee I said it in Ireland the Honourable and good Souldiery submitting to their King whom God would dispose and over-rule so to do of which thou art found the most eminent they should have honours conferred upon them indempnity forgiveness and large rewards given unto them of by the King when restored put on this rich Garter which hath for its inscription Hony soit qui maly pense the other Order Ribin worn upon the body remembers all Subjects we should not so much as think an evil thought of the King in our hearts And now complain not but rejoyce for ever O Cromwell thou seest with whom God hath ranged thee with the greatest and happiest of Kings Queens and Princes now thy Honour is worth having there was something in it that thy good aged and so lately deceased Mother was as I hear a Stuart she is gone to the common Wardrop of the world the grave Be comforted thy Father is a Stuart too he lives the Father of his Countrey and the King of all good Subjects for their Consolation of which blest number we may not doubt thou art Son and Subject since God hath so declar'd it made you United Sons of the now more visible and glorious Protestant Church than ever in Heaven glorious to all eternity This our King hath now largely given to him of the fountain and as our blessed Saviour came to his universal Dominion not by fighting but winning his Subjects by dying for them so by merit and of purchase had the ends of the Earth for the bounds of his Kingdom which being but earth the rule of it he now gives to his Vice-Roy CHARLS STUART whom in his uncontrolable and unsearchable wisdom and mercy he hath made worthy of as much Honour Command and rule on Earth as Mortality is capable of not of merit but to let us see that he which gives himself to do the will of his Saviour which is in Heaven and denies him not on Earth which thy now blessed Father our King did in obedience to the Commands of his God for such a witness the Almighty made of him and such a Martyr we have put to death and such a glorified Saint was the Crown of your rejoycing my most blessed and for ever happy Queen when he your Majesties on Earth now in Heaven glorified Be not troubled Madam they were Villains and Rebels that aspersed your Honour and his Majesty you see it as also your no otherways vertuous and for ever happy Sister now Queen of France See how the Lord loves your Souls Honours your Persons and establisheth your posterity to you Madam Behold the Lord now gives his and your Son but our so much Honoured and ever blessed Soveraign to be King of the whole World and to you Madam the best of France's Queens whose two Sons good men saw what God did for you gave you them both from Heaven 't is true to make your patient expectancies hopes and faithfull dependencies on him the Almighty visible to the World as they were to Heaven he defers it in his wise delayes which are always the best for 23 years untill your glorified King also was going thither in whose last dayes his graces as his blessings were at the highest for your comfort Madam and the Worlds thankfull and happy acknowledgement had they but grace to see it as now all may Was there ever two such Kings and Mother Queens on Earth yet see how the Devil and his instruments would eclipse them and hath aspersed both but God witnesseth for you and hath now declared you and yours beloved in Heaven and to be obeyed on Earth Most excellent Queen of France you were pleased some sixteen years past my self being at Saint Jermains I came thither with the now Lord Jermain your Majesty after honours and favours by your most excellent and good self afforded did interrogate me what Religion I was of I then humbly satisfied your Majesty I was a Catholick your Majesty further demanded of me what Catholick I answered the best said your Majesty it is then Roman Catholick is it not I bowed before your Majesty as in duty and replied it was Catholick è Protestant a la mode d' Angleterre point de Rome Your Majesty whom God hath made to your power communicably good to all pitying my condition was pleased to offer me a Letter to your Kings Confessor of good will desiring my conversion I humbly acknowledge the favour but replied my Religion I liked so well as not to change it Madam be pleased to see now how God more than retributes and no otherwayes recompenseth this your good will to Gods glorie and my good as intended my unworthy self Madam is now sent unto you by the Lord not onely to your so pious and so eminently good self but also to more than your whole Kingdom to bring your Majesty and them into his only true Church that Church which is not
of all to love true Religion your just interest brotherly love in which onely we can be happy in that good way and best example I beseech God be you the first and most eminent I may not doubt of it for whom God Almighty hath reserv'd nay declared such everlasting loving kindnesses Sir I do truely tell you I could with the most ardent desire greatest hazard endeavoured to have hang'd or murdered all your Enemies but God hath reproved me I can now do nothing with more delight than to pray for them yet let 's not trust them that 's a folly I beseech God to deliver us from the wisdom of the Serpent is not denied though the innocency of the Dove be injoyned both most excellent for imitation Sir I have no intelligence more than with the common it is believed that some dayes since from Holland came expresses of the confirmation of peace I believe after this summer within a short time there will be an end of all the Wars in the Christian world Sir I have seen letters reporting your affairs at Ratisbon to be well advanced and in good condition humane wisdom the strength of allies and confederates for the probable carrying on or promoting of your just interest may not be neglected or refused but Sir I do hope Nay believe that the Almighty will do this great work for the good of all without bloudshed if we give over to abuse his mercy and provoke not his wrathfull indignation then for his mercy honour name sake he hath promised to bring all these things to pass for you this Land Protestant Religion and although mighty strange and wonderfull these things are yet he will do it for the reasons above and it shall be marvelous in our eies as in my first Papers you have it at full consisting of ten sheets numbred in the margent as they should be read Sir the time is now at hand in May you shall see the fulfilling of another part of that Prophesie which the Lord was pleased to have spoken by me his most unworthy Servant and Prophet the not transplanting of the Irish Nation I beseech you Sir let Doctor Earls first read my Letters for I spell ill write ill and point not well he is a good man let him also chuse your Clergie and be you Sir advised by him God Almighty be pleased to preserve you give you abundantly of his grace mercie and wisdom and with it all things that good is Sir So prayes the humblest and unworthiest of the servants of the Lord my God and you my King April 21. 1654 Walter Gostelo My second Letter to the PROTECTOR O. C. Most excellent Sir MY belief as my hopes is that what your Lordship was pleased to say unto me I shall in the best fittest time reap the speaking with you I did return to my Lodging at Saint James the Tuesday I promised your good self but there I met with this affront as to have it disposed of in my absence contrary to my order and expectations affronts in other places also Indeed Sir I meet with little else but aversness to good in men I have since expected your Lordships Command or the happiness of seeing you neither yet come to hand or eye did not the goodness of God from the mouth of such as his Providence guided me to hear Preach let me see what I am to expect from man though of my own Religion my Spirits would fail me the Jews so ill treated the Prophets sent to them in their times and we no better follow their bad examples My Lord be not backward to hear and consider the great good the Lord is pleased to do and bring to pass for the honour of the Protestant Religion the general good of all men amongst whom more particularly our Soveraign CHARLS STUART and your good self so sure as the Heaven is over my head and the Earth under my feet I do believe his Majesty and some others of which number you are to be blest with long life honour as much as mortality is capable of here everlasting happiness hereafter My Lord as these things are the decree of heaven so are they to all assured the strongest Obligations of the strictest obedience upon Earth I have already wrote to my King I could not do otherwayes First to let him know what God is pleased to assure shall be done for him next to minde him of his dayly duty how that without holiness no man shall ever see the face of God to his comfort Further that he forgive all his Fathers Mothers and his own Enemies for no man yet ever lost by referring all to God in this he will best imitate his glorified Father certainly in Heaven who prayed dying for forgiveness to those that put him to death For the remitting of the highest injuries we have the best of patterns our Lord himself My Lord if I have any other end than the glory of God the honour of the Protestant Religion the discharge of my duty to the command of my God in my desire to speak with you then do thou O Lord whom I believe hath deputed me to these very ends never suffer me to see your face Therefore good my Lord be not backward to let me speak with you which done as God shall direct I shall afterwards haste as concerned into other Kingdoms to those in Ireland and this when communicated to your good self I have done my duty and shall I presume then have quiet and after see the fulfill of all to Gods glory who for his name and mercy sake hath assured me he will bring it to pass and it shall be marvelous in our eyes My Lord I ever shall continue to pray that God would bless and preserve you to the overcoming of all your Enemies but more especialy your corruptions So prayes the unworthiest of the Lords servants and yours S r Walter Gostelow At my house in Broadstreet May 25. 1654. A POST-SRIPT MY Lord be pleased to allow this Post-script I dare not omit it your Lordship hath heard me and now read my Prophesie I believe divers others also that of Elenor Channel who was sometimes taken dumb a Prophesie very highly considerable failing out in a time much about mine the matter one with mine sent upon that imploy of the Lords to your good self as most considerable in this Kingdom disquieted as I was untill she had communicated or made known the whole to you onely addressed Now because it is so very full and falls in such a conjuncture of time with mine and but short I have printed it at the end of this My Lord I well remember you were pleased after the good Admonition given me to serve God and to walk according to his will revealed in his word to let me understand your self formerly had and now lately also some things presented unto you which were since come to pass also but to rely on Visions or Revelation we
as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ and he that thus believeth on him shall not be confounded this stone which the builders disallowed you Jews the same stone is made the head of the corner Converted to him you shall be therefore look about you your time is at hand ye are a chosen generation a royal Priest-hood an holy Nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light So that with the fulness of Gentiles now coming in you make perfect that building which himself the living corner stone holds together This observe you have in the 1 of Peter the 2 Chapter from the 4 to the 10 verse in that Testament is the fulfill of all your Prophesies of him that was to come Shilo already come look I say on that his word and know him look not for Him as a Temporal King Next Sir for your further good make your applications to CHARLS STUART Charls the Second Gods Vice Roy on Earth who sitting in Parliament makes then the Supream Court of England before not so rightly called thus Charls is your and our King blest and happy for ever by God and him you may not doubt to be freed ere long from the many unsupportable pressures sufferings your Antony Montezinus truely tells you and us are imposed upon you in America and yet endured by your brethren the Jews from the cruel hands swords and tongues of those proud idolatrous high minded and puft up Nation the Spaniards constraining the Roman Religion which Church of Rome shall fall God hath said it and that Nation shall not long Tyrannize over you nor those poor Indians there if this come not to pass put me to death your deliverance is not far off Sir we have an Earthly King for your comfort that will shew you in his professed Protestant Religion the wayes of truth which you and all are commanded to walk in that you may at the last to your comfort also know and see him the King of glory Jesus Christ our Lord that is above in Heaven which Heavens must contain him untill his second coming whose appearance or making of himself known to you for your conversion I hope nay I believe is at hand I beseech God open your eyes that you may see him though you have stopt your ears as being not willing to hear his Gospel charm he never so sweetly Sir you are sure of my readiness to serve you in all I can to God first praying for you next in my true endeavours for you and your Nation to this my King CHARLS STUART Gods Vice-Roy on Earth that whilest you live in this World you may be favoured and defended of his goodness and power by his so victorious happy and prosperous Lieutenant General of all his Forces Oliver Cromwel Lastly Sir when your bodies shall go the way of all flesh my prayers have been are and shall be that your Souls may go the way of all Saints and so all of you sit down and keep a perpetual Sabbath of rest with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven to which Kingdom God of his infinite mercie bring all of you and us Sir I doubt not to prevail with that worthy Gentleman which translated your book Mr. Moses Wall to translate this my Letter into a language fitter for your observe your accomplishments speak you skilled in Arts and Tongues my self bread to Trade and Negotiation Sir I beseech Almighty God to improve all your studies to his glory and your brethrens good Such is the most affectionate harty prayers of your undoubted friends and servants of this Nation as also more particularly Sir Your for ever to command W. GOSTELO To the worthy Persons of Honour now being or to be in PARLIAMENT with the PROTECTOR GEntlemen this Book hath told you what God will certainly do for this Church King and people yea he will do it I have told you in some measure what you ought to do Gods word a good conscience and the known Laws of the Land will best guide you If not all observed to you return you into those wayes from which late Parliaments pretenders to Reformation have deviated When the Prophet which God sent upon his imploy to wicked Jeroboam who indeed as all wicked Governours when named is remembred to posterity he that made Israel to sin when this Prophet went out of his way back again with that false one that had seduced him to eat and make provision for the flesh as you may read in the first of the Kings and 3 Chapter what doth the Lord do to that disobedient man sent to them for reformation he commands a Lion to meet him and kill him the Lion doth so after stands by him justifies the doing of it being commissioned of God so obeyes God in all things â—he preyes not upon the body he devours him not though a disobedient Prophet Gentlemen you have now to deal with great offenders and presumptuous wickednesses I believe you are sent of God be not you afraid of any Vice seasonably checked pulls in the head and seeks rather a hideing place than a Fort he fears every thing that fears not God he that fears God fears not man at all when disobedient to his Lord King and Maker Worthies be you bold as this Lion sent of God you have a Lion for your leader sent of God also Oliver Cromwel for the punishment of evil doers follow him do you as he adviseth God hath commissioned him he must act boldly justly and yet mercifully Gods will in all things must be done Rebellion Schism and Villeny must be extirpated and left dead not stir again I know you are too good to fall upon any man in unjust wayes for his Estates sakes this Lion did not so he eat him not declare you your selves that none disobedient shall escape or go unpunished be an enemie to all vice no mans person the evil doer will vomit our his surfeits rather than die Those boasts if you closely pursue them will do as that I have heard of but now remember not his name bie of his precious stones rather than loose himself This will make the best amends to injured men and give offenders the opportunity of amending also having taken from them their money which is the root of all evil give to every man his just interest whether in Church or State take heed of foolish pity it marrs a Citie I have heard that the yet Bishop of London Wells B. B. now great and rich complaining of the active School-boyes for throwing stones and breaking the windows of one or both those Cathedral Churches an innocent and bold boy readily replied Sir had your care been as great to remove the small stones as it was to dispose of and remove the great ones with other