A
Strange and Wonderful
PROPHECY,
CONCERNING
The Kingdom of England, much whereof is already come to pass, within our Memory; tho of
several hundred Years standing.
It was taken out of an Old Manuscript, by Capt. George Withers; and Printed in the Year, 1646.
and now Reprinted, for the Benefit, and Satisfaction of all Ingenious, and True-hearted Eng-
lishmen, and others, to whose hands it may happen to come.
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WHen here a Scot shall think his Throne to set,
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Above the Circle of a Brittish King;
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He shall a dateless Parliament beget;
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From whence a furious armed Brood shall spring.
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That Army shall beget a wild Confusion;
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Confusion shall an Anarchy beget:
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That Anarchy shall bring forth (in Conclusion)
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A Creature which we have no Name for yet.
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That Creature shall conceive a sickly State,
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Which shall an Aristocracy produce:
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The many headed Beasts not liking that
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To raise Democracy hall rather chuse.
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And then Democracys production shall
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A Moon-Calf raise, which some a Mole do call;
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So acting for a while, few Men shall know,
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Whither among them a Supream or no.
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Five of them shall subdue the other Five;
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And then those Five shall (by a doubtful strife,)
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Each others Death so happily contrive,
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That they shall dye, to live a better Life.
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And out of their Corruption rise there shall
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A true Supream, acknowledged by all:
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In which the Power of all the Five shall be,
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With Unity, made Visible in Three.
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King, People, Parliament, with Priests and Peers,
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Shall be a while your emulous Grandees;
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And make confusion Pentarchy some years,
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And leave of their distinct claim by degrees.
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Then shall Righteousness ascend the Throne,
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And Love, and Truth, and Peace re-enter shall:
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Then Faith and Reason shall agree in one,
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And all their Vertues to their Councel call.
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Then timely after this, there shall arise
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That Kingdom, and that happy Government,
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Which is the Scope of all these Prophecies,
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That future Truths obscurely represent.
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But how this shall be done, few men shall see;
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For wrought in Clouds and Darkness it shall be:
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And 'ere it come to pass in publick view,
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Most of these following signs shall first ensue.
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A King shall willingly himself unking;
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And thereby grow far greater than before,
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The Priests their Priest-hood to contempt shall bring,
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And Piety shall thereby thrive the more.
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A Parliament itself shall overthrow,
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And thereby shall a better Being gain,
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The Peers by setting of themselves below,
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The more enobling Honour shall obtain.
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The People for a while, shall be enslav'd;
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And that shall make them for the future Free,
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By Private loss, the Publick shall be sav'd;
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The Army shall by yielding, Victors be.
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Then shall God own his People, and their Cause,
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The Law's Corruption shall reform the Laws.
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And Bullocks of the largest Northern breed,
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Shall fatted be, where now scarce Sheep can feed.
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