minde nor knew not before I was taken up that I was rising nor one word of what I said before pronounced I could not but very much admire and so I did both the manner and the matter Well I then prayed and praised God for awake I was as truely as I am now the sequel will prove that I then concluded it was not at all I that did it it was the Lord who would have it so and his Prophesie it was and is Much about half a quarter of an hour after I was taken up again as formerly and spake these words Proclaim CHARLS STUART King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith Charls 2 d King of the whole World This CHARLS STUART shall never die the Lady Elizabeth Boyl shall never die the Queen his Mother wife to the late King already blessed shall never die the now Queen of France shall never die the King of France shall never die his Brother the Queens other Son shall never die but shall all be taken up into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that never shall have end This spoken I was laid down again then did one M. Barret a Merchant in Bristol that deals in Leather and Skins who lodged in the same Chamber with me but in another bed call to me asked me how I did and if I was well I replied to him very well He asked me if I was asleep I said no he asked me if I knew what I said I replied yes very well he asked me if I believed what I said I told him he must give me leave to believe what the Lord caused me to speak and would have done There lodged also in the next room one John Marrick the Widdows son of that house aged about 21. With him in bed another Merchant as I take it of Bristol also or thereabouts to them both well known Those in that one bed spake to me also I replyed to them many words we had all I remember not I was anon after taken up again as formerly and spake these words OLIVER CROMVVELL shall never die the Countess of Cork shall never die the Earl her husband shall never die the Ladie Frances Boyl their eldest daughter shall never die the Lord of Broghill shall never die the Ladie Broghill his now wife shall never die but shall all be taken up into the kingdom of Jesus Christ which never shall have end I was laid down again and considered with my self What shall Oliver Cromwell never die it pleased me not But again the Lord reproved me and would have me know he judgeth not as man judgeth neither did his ways admit of any repine or contradiction Here again I spoke to the former parties but little lay still praying weeping and praising God for now I firmly believed and remembered that although these things were mightie strange and wonderfull yet by his Power for his mercie glorie and names sake he had assured me he would bring them to pass and they should be marvellous in our eyes as the Seal of my Commission was And remember I did he was now giving me the matter Again anon after I was raised as formerly and spake these words Thou Walter Gostellow shalt never die thy three Sons shall never die thy wife Anne and daughter Anne Gostellow shall never die but shall all be taken up into the kingdom of Jesus Christ that never shall have end Then shall the bodies of the Saints alreadie dead arise and be taken up into heaven also the Sheep shall go to the right hand and the Goats to the left pronounce this house a blessed house and this chamber shall for ever be called the chamber of the Great Prophet Thus have I set here down every word then pronounced by me but certainly the Dictates and good pleasure of the Lord of hosts that they be published to the world concerned by me Walter Gostellow his unworthy instrument I have not added or taken from one word that I know of nor misreported the manner But as old Eli asked Samuel after called of God by his name 3 times Samuel God had spoken unto him and given him his imploy what it was the Lord had said unto him as you may read in the 3 Chapter of that his first Book and the 17 ver and Eli there charged him that he hid nothing from him but tell him all which Samuel tels you and him in the next verse He did so hid nothing from him What follows it is the Lord let him do what seems him good and the Lord was with Samuel he grew and the Lord let none of his words fall to the groūd So all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established a Prophet of the Lord things coming to pass as he had foretold When I heard the word Prophet knew my unworthy self to be the man O Lord thou knowest my thoughts both then and now they are at no time hid from thee I stand amazed O Lord and am silent lay my hand I do upon my mouth and my mouth upon the ground A Prophet I am unworthy O Lord yea I am unworthy to live much more unworthy of this so great honor but O Lord thou hast fashioned me make me I beseech thee always to do thy will not mine own that hath been and now is sinfull yea so hath it been all my days therefore I most humbly beseech thee to have mercy upon me O Lord the greatest of sinners nay thou wilt have mercy for thy compassions fail not and thy mercies as thy ways are past finding out The rest of that night I spent in Meditation and Prayer when day I arose not fully dressed took Pen Ink wrote all spoken but with this addition I began with a Summons and Invitation to whomsoever that they would repair the next week Thursday morning about nine of the Clock being the 12 of January to the Town and Church of Youghal there to hear a Sermon upon this Text He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy The Text was given by a Prophet of Almighty God now here in Youghall his name Walter Gostelow which Prophet will then after Sermon that day tell you all in the Church that there is an end of all the Wars in the Christian World And so I went on to finish as before Prophesied and recited Further they should that day see riding out in great state several of those Saints and this Prophet out of Town and upon the Strand of Youghall which to me as well as others was given as a sign or miracle being yet to come for the strengthning of my Faith as also for the conversion and ground of belief to the Sons and Daughters of Men. I there went on The Heathen and the Jews are now fitting by the Lord to come into his Doctrine worship and service and under his Scepter Against which word of God the Holy Bible
like that of the Apostle Peter when the Prison door was set open for him and his Irons fell off so was the effect of that Call Come away the doors are opened to me the very next day But close up my mouth O Lord I may not complain every defer of thine is as my self suspended for a further good I know it thy own time and workings have none like them Thou wilt make discoveries of men and let us see as well who would be good if there were no law as who would practice wickedness by a law doth not God Almighty put us often into his sive several wayes also discovering the Wheat from the Chaff pray we must believe we must that all works for the best to them that fear God and patiently abide his good pleasure Return I must go on to my former intentions yet this believe me in you worthies of Parliament this insert was not begot by either of the Protectors two speeches to your good selves for I take God Almighty to witness I had not then read either of them Inlarged from Prison I gather in all my material papers as commanded which were not a few I now see them of very great concernment for the carrying on of this work I believe I wrote in Prison then twice as much as this Book and twice over also This Call thus directing Come away bring your Papers come away was certainly of God Well my self gotten out of Prison and my Papers gotten into my possession I hasten for England and in Easter week 1654. came to my own house where I now do and have resided twenty years being in Broadstreet near the Church over against Gresham Colledge at which Church once but not long enough officiated that so eminent and renowned Doctor Oldsworth but thank you invisible Parliament and such Oakes our then wicked Governours you sequestred imprisoned and destroyed him as you did hundreds and thousands of others God sent unto you of which you were unworthy but you could not help it the Jews your brethren did so persecute those sent unto them and aud truely you could not but follow the worst of examples the best are to be conformed to by these which are wiser men and therefore a true Parliament You long since as your actions have been the dishonour of the Protestant Religion and the Nation all the World over and future times will never call you a sober Parliament but as we desire not to believe you were English men so well constituted Parliaments for time to come will look upon you as upon Lots wife a lasting monument of her shame for looking towards Sodom when God had set her face towards salvation But I go on SECT VI. HAving passed a few dayes in my house I could not be in longer quiet untill I took me a lodging near Saint Jame's his house attending all opportunities and possible means to speak with the General whom not meeting with I wrote unto him several times to give him to understand that I had received of the Lord the most considerable and highest things imaginable to communicate to his good self being therein concerned as much as any and to whom from prison in Youghall God had pleased to send me for that very purpose therefore besought him to hear me After much attendance and not a few disappointments I had first at White-Hall the opportunity onely to speak to him made my self known to him but he had not the conveniency at that time to hear me in the things I so much desired yet then told me he would speak with me That further opportunity I had not though continued seeking it it and reminded him by Letters of his promise untill one Saturday in June a little before the death of the Portugal when and where it pleased Almighty God to afford me a most convenient one at Hampton Court and his Lordship there pleased to hear me out to the full affording me both his patience and attention too as I firmly believe There was present Sr. Gilbert Pickering and a Gentleman or two more whom I knew not for all which I returned as in duty Obliged first to God next to his Lordship all possible prayers and humble thanks And now least any thing might scape his Lordships observe which it is possible did my recital he hath this second review of it but printed more particularly for the World of men in it so highly concerned for I cannot be quiet untill to them I publish it also this being a light not to be hid the universal splendor of the Protestant Religion must break forth also the obedience of men to the Lord who I conceive and believe is now coming in mercy and wayes of making himself known to the Christian World Jews and Heathen in mercy but in judgement to others for the evil doer shall not abide in this so great and wonderfull a change On earth whom is the Lord pleased to make his Viceroy for rule his favour and loving kindness is the highest to our King CHARLS the Second CHARLS the Great CHARLS the good King of the whole World these are the words and declared pleasure of the ever living and our most mercifull God which I dare not conceal nor longer keep uncommunicated but must publish them to all concerned to have an end of all the Wars in the Christian World with the rest in the Prophesie is certainly considerable I confess after I had wrote to the General I could not but also do so to his Majesty my King the import of both refers onely to my duty in the discharge of which I onely can have quiet The Original of all Letters to them I have being to each five in all ten in any of them not the least thing advised to but as I conceive and so believe the minding both of them to the perform of such their duties as are most acceptable with God Almighty the one how to rule well the other so to obey things the most to be desired of good Kings good Subjects of which I wish the whole world were made up of I have therefore in the end of the book given two of those Letters to publick view that at once my inward thoughts may appear to the excite of walking as best becomes the most excellent of Kings and the highest of Subjects where the meanest also have to observe that in fearing God and honouring their King they are blest here and ever so to be hereafter omitting it miserable to all eternity From which sin of Rebellion because compared with that of witchcraft we have good reason to pray The Lord be pleased to deliver us especially when covetuousnes is joyned therewith the root of all evil sins which some men therefore will have the World justly condemned as a Witch in the end to be burnt because it and its lying vanities hath so bewitched us as to prefer them before the ever living God and our walking according to his
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
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
Death or otherwise of undoing them And what to do I pray but to commit Idolatry that those ye prefer may set up Imaginations of their own and you as they worship that Calf But you will say This is no Idolatry if so then let it go for Idiotrey and that hath but one Letter difference pray let it go for both as being guilty of both Those Calfs you set up after them you low and run but continue to neglect Gods Ministers whom you will neither hear nor prefer lest you should be converted and so become poor What out of love would you have us with that seeming righteousness zeal and godly party which to be of will certainly prefer us No bewitcht we are with it and for these reasons will be of no other judgement It is you that talk foolishly we profitably And this kinde of Idolatry in all ages hath caused Gods wrath to continue even against his own people How long did these disobediencies keep them from entering into the promised Land which indeed was so near them as we may truely say even at hand Moses goeth but up to the Mount to converse with God the people mutiny and will have him no more govern as King And for Priest and Prophet why not others as well as those God onely had set over them seeing they took too much upon them What is the event of this madness up goes a Calf presently worship it they will they will have Governours and Teachers of their own making as well as a God which shall not take so much upon them yet ruled they will be too but it shall be by themselves Tell not us say they of Gods Mission of your Prophets or Ministers onely we know better he that can do all without book learning or reason then he is sent if so gifted if we like him also it is good warrant Thus your contempt neglect and persecution of those men who undoubtedly would teach you from Heaven and better things than you either hear or practice on earth is another good reason in all ages it hath gone for a good one And yet one of your little ones must not be offended but if he cries and bawls for the life and estate of the most considerable in the Kingdom to please it must be given him or them Babes of Grace for you say the fat of the earth is for you the seeming Saints But you shall finde and know too anon God will do something for the thus persecuted but penitent Sinners Turn you turn you you great Hypocrites and you shall see these things come to pass in a short time And therefore gave I that Text to that worthy Doctor Mollines to let you all see that he which covers his sins shall not prosper but who confesseth and forsakes them shall find mercy and there is the reason It is true that good man Mr. Evans goes on to tell you one fault more an error it may be I think it is I am sure it makes way for a great one in giving the year its beginning from the Conception which should take it from the Birth of our Lord. And because you may fill the world with confusion you keep no day for the Commemoration of that neither which helps to make that ever to be observed good day no otherwise apparent than your charity whose right hand never yet knew what the left did But you trouble me and I long to be rid of you Are not these reasons if you have any for the wise delay of Gods mercies and restore of our so much desired King who if he comes not yet years months of which opinion I am not yet I will wait and believe for God hath said it He whom you have persecuted shall shortly come and that in Honour too and because he sowed in tears he shall reap in joy and bring his sheaves with him Oh! could I but perswade every man that reads me or hears of what the Lord is in mercy doing for these Kingdoms the King and Protestant Religion but to turn to him with all his heart and Soul for that is the taking way in new obedience and to leave no sin unrepented of and no commandment unconform'd unto in sincerity of heart and true obedience you would then All see that suddenly come to pass and be fulfilled in your dayes and eyes which I do as truely believe will come to pass and I shall see it nay I do already and enjoy it also as I do believe the Heavens to be over my head and the Earth under my feet Which if it fail I am content that you take me and put me to death These Reasons given for its Defer I am brought from what I had of Vision or my own Dictates to that which is most certainly Prophesie and the word of the Lord. Which although spoken out of my mouth by my tongue pronounced yet the matter no more my conceptions than I now dictate or write unto you the words or thoughts of the most Remote King or Emperour in the World for I never so much as had things of that nature in my minde Hear the manner and the matter they are both of the Lord To whom be given for ever Honour Praise Glorie Obedience and Thanksgiving Amen O Lord Amen And now before I proceed give me leave to tell you that this Fryday the 5 of August is come to my observe this of Jeremiah the 23 Chap. and the 28 vers The Prophet that hath a Dream let him tell a Dream and he that hath my word let him speak my word faithfully what is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord. O Lord this being thy command I will obey thee So help me God for now I come to thy own words SECT IV. SOme three dayes after I returned the second time from the Lord of Broghills to my Lodging the Widdow Merricks house in Youghal upon the 3 or 4 of January 1653. lying there in bed and having spent most part of that night in Meditation and Prayer rejoycings weepings for of that nature were my weepings the fullest of joy imaginable that indeed I often conceived not feared I might sooner die of an over-joy than any grief In that night I say from lying in my bed I was upon a sudden taken up that is to say made to sit up somewhat bowing and when so I did then with a loud voice somewhat altered from my ordinary speaking pronounce these words which words I say are the words of the Lord of Hosts God Almighty are these There is an end of all the Wars in the Christian World The Jews shall come in also the Heathen and shall be converted to the true Religion The Church of Rome shall fall The Irish shall not be transplanted This said I was laid down and wondring with my self that I should be thus taken up made to speak what I knew I uttered yet not have any of those thoughts or conceptions in my
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
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
CHARLS STUART AND OLIVER CROMVVEL UNITED Or Glad tidings of PEACE To all Christendom To the Jews and Heathen Conversion To the Church of Rome certain downfall The Irish not to be TRANSPLANTED Extraordinarily declared by God Almighty to the Publisher Walter Gostelow Psalm 85. vers 10. 13. Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other and shall set us in the way of his steps Printed for the Author 165â— OF GOD. C. R. RESTORED AND OLIVER CROMVVEL BLESSED READER TO Dedicate this Book to any other than to whom God Almighty hath directed it I dare not it is first to all you Christian Kings and Princess more especialy our own Charls Stuart and therein it shews you That when you govern best and most pleasing to the will of the Almighty whose Vice-Royes you are And of him made rulers on Earth for the general good you then live in a general Peace into which happy condition he hath now put you that his Temples may be rebuilded his Worship and his Ministers restored with what hath been stollen from both also your Subjects Gods people well educated in his houses by his Ministers sent in the wayes of Justice Peace and Holiness without which no man shall ever see the face of God to his comfort next it shews you that the so antiently beloved Seed of faithfull Abraham the Jews are now in his best times remembred and brought into the Faith of Christ our Lord the onely Son of God whom they Crucified the fulness of the Gentiles coming in with them also to the knowledge of his Gospel his that is the onely Shilo the onely Messia by the Heathen not yet heard of by the Jews hoped for he I say comes to both making himself known in such a manner as they expect not most strange wonderfully affording them his Vice-Roy Charls Stuart for their Defence Protection he professing that Gospel now to be Preached to the whole World against whose rule and Gospel none shall ever prosper that Rebels Disobeyeth or Schismatically riseth up therefore is the Church of Rome at this time sentenced to certain down-fall The Church of Rome shall fall The poor Irish whom wicked men would have transplanted upon the same principles as obdurate Pharoah would not let the children of Israel go covetuousness and hard-hartedness God doth continue in their own Land yea under his and their own Kingly Government also to the joy of their hearts That Nation being neither such a Bear as we misapprehended them nor their skin fit to be sold by us that did it before warrant is given from God to deliver it they shall not be transplanted God now shews us That wicked Rebellion was the design contrive of a few in that bloudy and ever Rebellious Church of Rome not the allowance of the Nation this also God shewed unto our now happy and glorious King in Heaven whilest good on Earth it is proved to you in his Letters taken at Naseby written to her Majesty My Heart you will finde the Irish with you Knaves they might deceive the one they could not deceive the other And since that how hath God fully cleared their Majesties as now the Nation from any allowance of that hideous Rebellion Own it Church of Rome it will match well with the Gun-powder Treason thou didst both as many others Thy Nuntio was in Ireland yet thou shalt fall Hath not God made his late Majesties abominating that wicked act clear as the day to be none of his ollowance you know or may That Sr. Phillemon O'neal upon his Trial at Dublin though pusillanimous and timed in all other things yet when he was to give an account from whence he had his Commission God sent him a courage gave him abilities to speak boldly and truely to Gods glorie the honour of the Protestant Religion and the Kings just Vindication he took Heaven and Earth to witness he had neither Commission from King or Queen for that Rebellion he affirmed that himself with others of the Roman stamp made them that he might play the best of his own Game it further appears in that Oath imposed on those he subdued to his own obedience These are things I have had from very good hands when my self at Dublin but that Traitor was executed a little before I came thither Now see what God doth who is the searcher of all hearts the King is in Heaven the Queen declared for Heaven the Nation not to be transplanted the contrivers and aspersers of both gone to their own home or truely discovered to us by the Lord who now throws down that wicked Church Well you shall now see we must all live together in brotherly love under Kingly Government also but you will say how can these things be considering what manner of Persons we have been this book will shew you It proceeds onely from the good pleasure and mercifull loving kindness of the Almighty The Lord hath made our Salvation not our destruction his glory when all we thy people O God had sinned beyond any help then O Lord thou sayest lo I come But after how wonderfull a manner and how certain our deliverance is read and know Actions salved up with a free forgiveness are as not done and as a bone once broken is much stronger after well setting so is love after reconcilement God forgives us our iniquities and in mercy restores us our King again who deals with us being guided of God as Joseph did with his brethren when onely of God made ruler in Egypt and had power to punish according to their demerit then he treats them kindly following the example of our Lord. He forgives all past injuries he loades them with good things he weeps over them when he tells them he is Joseph least they not seeing his heart might doubt of their forgiveness he drops Tears as Bloud from pitying eyes and heart they well knew what themselves had been to him unfaithfull brethren and it s not improbable when they saw themselves by God cast under his power and dispose they might fear tremble and expect the reward of so high demerit for the affronts they had put upon Joseph But least such fears should too much sadden their unquiet Souls he weeps over them more abundantly imbraceth them afresh gives them all they stood in need of and doth not so much as once remember them of the evil measure they had dealt him so allows them no ground at all to suspect their safety whose injuries he had fully forgiven Most happy Re-union meeting that sweetens more in its return than it imbitâ—ered in its absence Protection my book commands not craves under Oliver Cromwel Protector also his conformity thereunto yet I beseech both God hath now declared him to be beloved first in Heaven as you shall read then of his King CHARLS STUART and all good men on Earth the Almighty both deputed him to be highly instrumental for the bringing of
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
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
not to be altered the Book of Common-Prayer in some things altered and amended as by a Council lawfully called whom God shall direct shall stand and flourish all over the whole World The Doctrine and Faith of the Church of England being the purest in the World against which word of God and his sword put into the hands of this King CHARLS STUART no Power on Earth shall ever prevail that of Rome is now tumbling down and melting away like a mighty Snow-ball The King and Queen of France with that whole Nation shall ere long be converted to this Faith which Kingdom of France and all others upon the Earth under the Sun and Heavens shall be obedient to this Charls the Second and his Rule in the Kingdom of England The Lady Elizabeth Boyl second Daughter to the Earl and Countess or Cork is this Kings Wife The General of all the English Forces Oliver Cromwell shall never die so I here wrote him and could not otherwise though I tried often and varied to give him several Titles but could not the Reason you shall have anon Be pleased to observe in the pronounce of the Prophesie it is onely Oliver Cromwell all other Persons of Dignity Honour by their Titles as Signiories his onely Oliver Cromwell the Reason I promise I went on The Irish Nation should not be removed but possess their own just Rights converted to this true Faith they should be And so praying that God would enlighten them and all men that we might all live in brotherly love and Unity one with another return again into his Courts with praises and there serve him in sincerity of heart and in the beauty of holiness for so his house ought to be fitted for his service that others might be invited by us and with us to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven whose will be done on earth by men as it is by Saints and Angels in Heaven Thus I concluded writing as fast as possibly which done I could not be quiet but hasted immediately to that so every way eminently good Countess of Cork read the Paper to her and after made it my request very often sollicitous I was by my Letters that she would send her Letters abroad to invite in the Nobles Gentry and Countrey to the Town of Youghall against that day the 12 of January my self having read and communicated the whole to her Honour was by her and Doctor Mollines over-perswaded to retire for a time to my Chamber which I did But when there I could not be quiet but wrote and sent abroad to several inviting them to Youghall that 12 of January to hear as before recited all to be divulged by me that day in the Church after Sermon I continued soliciting that Countess that she would do the like untill I knew I became troublesom yea very troublesom even unto two dayes before this 12 of January did I thus be stir my self In Fine my Kinsman M Leonard Gostelow Secretary to the Earl came to me brought me back from her Honour divers of my own Letters told me weeping that the Countess and his Lord with divers others believed me certainly Mad that I would so impertinently to no purpose trouble my self and others He then asked me what I would have I told him onely the Countrey Nobles Gentry and All to come in to hear the Sermon and Prophesie that day the 12 of January He replied to me if it be company you would have trouble not your self there will be enough here for on that day will be several Horse-matches which hearing I was very much joyed and after that time never troubled my self in the least particular in that business to move further which I take God Almighty to witness untill his telling me of it it came not into my minde although I confess I had formerly heard of it but all the time untill then it was no more remembered by me than it was known to the most remortest man in the World But I shall observe to you anon the wisedom and good pleasure of God Almighty in casting and bringing to pass what fell out upon that day the day I was most active upon after the divulge of all I had to say and did say it in the Church I cannot but observe to you that when perswaded to retire to my Lodging and did so the Lord of Broghill's Physician came to me closely attended me sweat I must keep my bed not stir not write at any hand not do any thing but as prescribed all which I now see were clear Artifices of the Lord of Broghill and that otherwise-good Countess of Cork lest I should proclaim in the Church what I had penned in the Paper for to her Honour I made always my first addresses untill it pleased God to direct me to the Lord of Broghill as more considerable for the carrying on of this work of the Lords For it is the Lords and shall and will come to pass though I must tell thee Reader whosoever thou art I have met with very little other then aversness and derision if not scorn from almost All and to be called Mad hath been in many of their mouths Yet I praise God though some have endeavoured to make me the sooner Mad by very uncivil carriages and affronts no man living can say nay I challenge them to it that they divulge it if they ever saw in any of my actions or Papers which I have Copies of the most considerable and some Letters returned me ought of Levity if so let them shew it to the World spare me not I beg not their favour I scorn it it is no new thing O Lord to bestow ill and false Appellations in all ages upon men thy servants sent upon the like imploy to turn others from the errour of their ways that delight in general wickednesses To declare ought from the Lord that suites not with their fancies love and over-carnal apprehensions it must be madness in their judgements to advise the Great Rich Covetous Proud High-minded to deny themselves madness it must be Assuredly our portion is like that of our Saviours from the Scribes and Pharisees who were so they heard all that was said unto them yet being proud and covetous they derided him But thou O Lord be thy name for ever praised and so magnified thou assistest thou deliverest me thou providest for me of thy alsufficiencie rich mercie and everlasting loving-kindness which I now most humbly beseech thee may increase in me not onely in a firm dependance on thee but a walking before thee all my days in the true practice of pietie and ways of thy commandments which onely can through thy mercie deliver in all the Inundations of evil and practices of proud and obstinate Sinners from whom good Lord deliver me But I hasten Thursday the 12 of January came in bed I would not stay up I got to the Church I went took a seat in the most
Elder Brother gave me his Bond Parrole and Honour to pay those Bills of exchange given me for repayment in England This his Brother was killed in the Wars of Ireland my money not paid by him the Bills were drawn upon nor ever by that his elder Brother the principle killed and my whole debt seemingly dead also being very great My self now in Ireland I reminded this Lord of Broghill of what by Parrole he was debter to me with its consideration for 17 years upon Bill of exchange signed by his elder brother but never paid his Lordship not being at age became not bound otherwise than in point of Honour by his Parrole Truely the long time and my discontinuance beyond the Seas having made no former Application to him had worn both out of his memory but upon discourse both came to his Lordships reminde No sooner so but we consented to refer all allowances and demands of Interest to the Earl his Brother and M. Robert Boyl his youngest This done by consent his Lordship a few dayes after told me Well if my brothers to whom we have referr'd this business see no ground in Law possibly to proceed upon his Lordship haveing not given either specialty or promise since his being at age to pay the moneys so not liable in Law If thus they proceed said his Lordship to me yet come you to me and I will compose you in conscience But his Lordships brothers whom I found conscientious also in six words as I may say composed me and I have my money and these grounds I have for the taking of his Paroll my imprisonment and the preserve of his Paroll with Honour and to those that will preserve it Honour is due as here to his Lordship for the publishing of this Act I was debter either to the invite or else to the shame of others that have more of Title but less of good conscience Good Men direct into not lead out of the way I am where I was and go on to let you know that this day Thursday the 12 of January all those Persons being thus there and in such good equipage upon the same place the sign given me for my confirmation and others also is fully made good to me considering also my not commitment that day together with the great concourse of people from parts far more remote than I intended my Summons for the invite in of the Gentry and Country that day to that place for to let them know this business of the Lords Thus the work of the Lord is carried on to the greatest advantage and so brought to pass whilest we onely think to do our own wills how doth he make us to effect his Every Creature walks blindfold onely he that dwells in light sees whither they go We are for Hors-races yet see how we fall under his decrees unawares that we might the more adore the depth of his Providence For the rumore of what I had said and done that day and the next spred over the Country Post it went to Dublin in England it was in a short time and as the Cloud of Elias raised from the Sea at first appeared but as an hand-breadth so this rumour raised upon the Strand of Youghall by the Sea-side little then as it was now as that Cloud raised by that Prophet spread over the whole Heavens and Earth and falls upon it also what to do but even as his To glad the people and make fruitfull the Earth Publick meetings and great concourses of people fittest to disperse general mercies to the Sons of men The Irish desire to know nothing more nor enjoy any thing on Earth before their own habitations not to be transplanted and to have the Kingly Government restored Why they are ready to die of an over-joy Oh the wisdom and loving kindness of the Lord Who can do other than obey him Well the third day in Prison I am and for Treason too there I pass a moneth or six weeks no offer for inlargement On a sudden If I will go out I may but I must go presently aboard a Ship there bound for England ready to depart Many requests I made before that time that I might be sent over Prisoner to the General Oliver Cromwell to whom I was deputed but not in any hearkened unto Well Go I would yet positively I said that untill I had once more been with the Lord of Broghill and given him my Prophesie in writing under my Hand and Seal delivered and left with him the most material parts of it I would not go that done I would go and then his Lordship should dispose of me as he pleased I would afterwards in all things readily obey him His Lordships Secretary and the Earl of Corks both with me then making the offer of inlargement upon the terms as before which when I refused except upon my own terms they fairly told me I should ly there three moneths longer then be proceeded against and for Treason hang'd To which I replied Let them burn me also if they could I would not go out but upon those terms Appear to the people I would had they put me in publickly and will they take me out privatly I would appear to the people even to all that were there that I was enlarged Mad I was not the business was the Lords and he would bring it to pass and deliver whom he had sent and commissionated in the fittest time I bade them be gone told them I would do all that and more which was to leave another of my Prophesies under my own hand at the House I lodged in the Widdow Merricks written in Parchment boxed up and hanged over my Beds head in the Chamber I lodged in which I pronounced should be called the Chamber of the great Prophet for ever My Prophesie I wrote gave it to the Widdow Merricks Son in writing a Man grown he is he keeps it ten dayes or more then returned it me and told me his Mother durst not suffer it to be hanged up Here was obedience to Governours I would it had always been so Well the Ship is gone in Prison I remain my Keeper again begins new it now was not to practice some of his former Tricks upon me False Prophet he calls me a Child of his some 2 or 3 years old is also taught to call me so himself owns the teaching of it which when I desired him to forbear or else tell me upon what ground he did it he replied to me he had good grounds You are said he for the Superstitious keeping of Dayes and Times as in particular that in the time of Lent we should do well to fast pray and examin our selves that so through Gods mercies we may as you say become worthy receivers of his most blessed body and bloud for the Remission of sins at the feast of his Resurrection at Easter Nay you are for a Passion Sermon also upon good Friday as you call it when all dayes
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
should not having the more sure word of God the Scriptures to rest on good counsel it was I agree all and the best to avoid delusion the Prophesie being the Lords I cannot have a dis-esteem of one word of that My Lord is not all I have said unto you agreeable to the word of God Is it not your duty to fear God Honour and obey your King to assist the rebuild of Gods House the restore of his Ministers and their maintenance not to side with those that are given to change to be in love with all men also with justice mercie and forgiveness to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness and then all other things less considerable unpursued shall be given unto you My Lord do this and live for ever happy Now because its possible this hath not been done by you certainly not by the Nation see God sends his Prophets unto both and that you may know they are his they bring nothing contrary to Scripture 't is true they come to you in a unwonted and seeming strange way the reason of that is this To persons of Honour or a people the Lord intends mercy too it hath been his accustomary manner of proceeding to such he sends his Prophets that they may repent and live and shall Gods mercy your own happiness and the Kingdoms welfare become our contempt your destructions if not harkned unto No God forbid do you as all others what I have advised too and be happy Nay you shall do it There is a Gentleman of known worth and Honour his name I will not Print his Paper I have with this Gentleman God hath sent me acquainted very lately my Lord this person of good accomplishments tells me of a Vision he had some time since and in it how he saw the King and your Lordship on one side of the water Moderators on the other debating upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England from Article to Article the word Protestant Religion was much insisted upon and discussed it was whether in so large a sence you intended it as to take in the Sectaries and disturbers of the peace of that Church and this Kingdom so to comprise all my Lord in fine there was so much said to his Majesty and such clear satisfaction given to your Lordship by such as sate as Moderators that it brought your Lordship to a most humble and thankfull submission and so bowing before his Majesty you came both into one Boat where the King kindly and with good affection imbraced you and so went away both together in good understanding That done this Gentleman heard the Bells generaly ring saw the bone-fires and great was the acclamations as well as the rejoycings of the people in the Land My Lord make all this good do you Proclaim as well as pray God save the King and then the people will pray and say God save the best of Subjects and the honourablest of Souldiers O. Cromwell Amen say I God preserve both The PROPHESIE and Message of ELNOR CHANNEL sent to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell April 19. 1654. 1. PEace be to this House and Peace be to the whole Kingdom and the peace of God be with us for ever 2. The God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath opened the mouth of the Dumb to speak for peace the Sword must be stayed the World draweth toward an end and the knots of peace and love must be made in all the Christian Lands 3. Sir You have taken upon you to be a Protector of your Lords Vineyard but he requireth that you should make the Hedges and the Walls of it which is peace and love and the true Gospel and that you Protect the Stuart to plant his Vine-yard 4. If a man fall into the hands of a Creditor if his Creditor be one of Christs servants he will not take body and goods if his Body payes the Debt his Heir shall have the Inheritance REader observe this ELNOR CHANNEL Arise Evans my self with others I have heard of all agreeing and sent unto Oliver Cromwell Protector upon this very imploy the rebuild of Gods House the return of his Ministers the restore of the King the Promote and declare of a General Peace through the Christian World the Conversion of the Jews the Protestant Religion more Glorious than ever with its fruits of peace and love amongst all men we I say whom God hath sent to promote and declare these things of his mercy for you coming to pass are all of the Protestant Religion the true Church of England no Papists no Schismaticks no abettors to any faction whatsoever yet as in duty bound we continue to pray for the Conversion of all them and more to the true Religion which Gods Word shews you as well as our Prophesies now tells you is the Protestant and shall be now more conspicuously glorious than ever The Defenders of which Faith is CHARLS STUART and Oliver Cromwell United AN ADMONITION to Covetuous and therefore miserable men WHat Compassion left the Christian World and fled into America Certainly the Gospel follows he hath said it that is the word of Truth whose Compassions fails not through the world that shall be preached happy America most happy Exchange hath thou made for thy Clay and Dirt the surface of that Earth is not so Barren Thorny Stony as our hearts which stick to thy Ore as to our All Thou wisely sents it from thee as a Servant to do thy will it 's unhappily become our Master whilest we neglect and contemne the onely Jewel to purchase which we should sell all this Gospel Teacheth better things than you formerly have either heard or we practised covetuous and miserable comforters are you all more than thirty of you in six Moneths solicitation not lend so much money as to Print this Book which I told you was so highly to Gods glory the Kings interest and the Worlds general good with the honour of the Protestant Religion to all which you pretend good affection but to promote any of them this ready answer no money would you borrow to set up Gods Kingdom he can do that without you our mony is to set up our own let him look to his we and you to our own callings I can value your Estates worth at least 150 thousand pounds your persons I cannot value at more than so many 0000000000 miserable men bring forth better fruits for the time to come know that mercy neglected leaves room for judgement follow me Reader and I will in the next place shew thee better Jews than these were therefore God sends them his Gospel to guide their feet in the wayes of his Commandments which are Compassion and loving kindness it is the mercifull that shall finde mercie Misers you are going out of the world also you shall shortly finde if your treasure be laid up in Heaven for there it perisheth not but I may not
flatter you you have counted gain godliness not godliness great gain you will reap what you have sowed amend your lives if you would be happy the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand to your comfort or destruction Rich men hardly enter into Heaven covetuous and unmercifull men not at all I beg of God for your amendments although you have necessitated me to beg of the World mony to Print this Book which I will repay God willing Yet I believe some that commoded me rather thought it given than lent so visibly poor hath violent men and these ill times made me I have lost by hundreds thousands despoiled of all but what makes a continual feast it is not for faithfull servants and good subjects to lie down in Beds of Roses when their Saviour stands Crowned with Thorns and their King falls shorter by the Head we must suffer with them before we can Raign with them happiness is for him that overcometh and the Crown of Glorie is given to such as fear God and Honour the King Of which blest number though I cannot presume you are yet I hope this Rabby and good Jews I next direct too will shortly be For Mannasseth BEN-ISRAEL at AMSTERDAM Most Learned Rabby SIR your Book intituled the Hope of Israel Dedicated to the Supream Court of England a Parliament came not to my hand untill this was near ready for the Press Certainly Sir you have been of Gods goodness guided aright to make your addresses to this Church and Nation you observe well we have continued to pray for your conversion duty binds us to it to treat your persons otherwayes than well we should not to assist what possible we can a people so anciently the beloved Sons of God and most honourable off-spring of Faithfull and blessed Abraham is and ought to be all our devoirs Sir I read your so excellent and profitable resolution to carry on the Famous and Learned History of Josephus And also further observe your desire that if any thing offer to men in the Christian world fit for your purpose your request is they would be pleased to acquaint you with it Sir In this Book you will finde things very highly considerable God having been pleased to communicate it to the World in his own way by Prophesie your Brethren expect a deliverance restauration not far off because all the Prophesies amongst your own are fulfilled Sir It is my firm belief that in our Kings Raign CHARLS STUART Charls the Second and under his government you will have deliverance Peace and Protection the ground for my so believing this book will inform you I have therefore given you it with all its circumstancies at full that thereby you may have the clearer satisfaction that it is not delusion About the 18 th year of my age I was in several of your Synagogues my eldest Brother a Studient and fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford there with me to observe accomplish himself for the good of others He Sir having conversed with divers of your Rabbies did after tell me what they so believed as not to be moved from That for a people so beloved of God and to whom the promises of the Almighty were so peculiarly good so many so frequently afforded and made known as to the Jews they were your Rabbies could not be perswaded that Shilo or the Messiah could be come into the World and they not know of it to whom say they he was promised as a King to deliver restore and govern them in this World take heed Sir the love of this world deceives a world thus to bound the Almighty and herein to place your happiness demonstrates your misapprehend of him what was Prophesied by your own of him David tells you as well as others his Kingdom was not of this World he came to his own which were your selves but ye refused him he after turned to us the Gentiles who indeed injoy him that you yet hope for I wonder Sir you see not this clearly fulfilled and proved to you in your own Prophets as also in that so excellent piece of History you are carrying on Josephus was not Jerusalem destroyed and made a heap of stones all which our Saviour long foretold it should be so and that Generation should not pass untill all were fulfilled as in the 22 of Luke and the 32 verse referring to the destruction of Jerusalem that it was fulfilled Josephus his story confirmeth and the continuance of that verdict is yet evident The other Prophesie which evidently argues Christs Divinity by its success also is what your self and your own Rabbies cannot but see and hear fulfilled concerning the Woman that spent the Oyntment on our Saviour for which he told that it should never be forgotten but with the Gospel be Preached to all ages as in Matthew the 26. and the 13. your self Sir living in the Christian World cannot but see read and hear this fulfilled the Fathers of our Church Protestant Religion have published to the World the fulfill of your allowed Prophesies and shewed it you clear as the Sun Sir have you ever lain so long under Gods displeasure as since you have shut your eyes against so great and clear a truth That God will in mercy gather you from the corners parts of the World is my belief as well as yours that many of you are in America I may not doubt neither do I allow for other than true the relation given to your self and others at Amsterdam in the year 1644. by Antony Montezinus I now onely advise and especialy commend to your reading the New Testament you have it with you in languages very many of you now sufficiently understand God hath put us of this Church and Nation to give it you in more languages hasting to you Sir that will acquaint you with truer and better things to Salvation than the story of the Sabaâ—…icâ—l River whose great stones you say rest upon your Sabboth onely but all other dayes continue to be carried about in motion Sir to the frequent reading of that New Testament the best Book in the whole World be pleased to joyn your often prayers beseeching the Almighties guidance in all things for the better understanding of it thus continuing in well doing reading and praying you are sure to be taught of God and know you will that what the Prophet Isaiah Prophesieth in his 28 Chapter and 16 vers Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste Now Sir would you and all yours as new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the word that ye may grow thereby you would suddenly know that this corner stone and sure foundation is Christ our Lord already come To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious would you I say but come thus fitly prepared ye also