Concerning the Great City of London.

I Beheld all her waters which belonged to her frozen up, and that ex­ceeding hard, and the vessels which went upon them, so that I and others passed over her waters without the least danger, and over the greatest vessels which had carried her merchandize; For all was frozen with a mighty freezing, whereby all her goodly merchandize were stopt, and her mighty swift waters were turned into a mighty thick frozen ice, which stood still, so that her pleasant streams ran no more.

And as for the City her self and her suburbs, and all that belonged to her, a fire was kindled therein, but she knew not how, even in all her goodly places, and the kindling of it was in the foundations of all her buildings, and there was none could quench it, for it was like an invisible fire, neither was there any able, neither did any seek to quench it; and the burning thereof was exceeding great, and it burned inward in a hidden manner, which cannot be expressed, and the fire consumed all foundations which the City stood upon, and all the tall buildings fell, and it consumed all the lofty things therein, and the fire searched out all the hidden places, and burned most in the secret places, yet very little of the fire appeared, but the consumation was exceeding great, wherewith it consumed everything.

And as I passed through her streets, I beheld her state to be very mi­serable, and very few were those that were left in her, who were but here and there one, and they feared not the fire, neither did the burn­ings hurt them, but they were (and walked) as mournfull dejected peo­ple, and the fire burned every where, so that there was no escaping of it; And thus she became a desolation, and as an astonishment, for the burn­ing was of God, and could never be quenched nor overcome; and in the midst of her waters was the vessel of her merchandize frozen up, that none could move it, and there was none that sought to stop the burning, and the fire consumed all things both stone and timber, and it burned under all things and under all foundations, And that which was lifted up above it fell down, and the fire con­sumed it, and the burning continued; for though the foundation was burnt up, and all the lofty part brought down (by the fire) yet there was much old stuffe, and part of broken desolate walls and buildings in the midst, which the fire continued burning against; And that which was taken as to make use of, which yet escaped the fire, became uselesse in mans hand as a thing of nought. And the Vision hereof remained in me as a thing that was secretly shewed me of the Lord.

And now let her wise men find out the matter, and her prudent men read the Parable, and her Divines (so called) interpret the Vision, (And let her know that her day is at hand) And let every one of them look to their own wayes.

And as for thee, O City of London, thy sin hath been exceeding grie­vous, and thy iniquities beyond measure; Who can number thy daily transgressions, or set before thee the multitude of thy abominations? Oh! thy waies have grieved the Lord, and thy works have oppressed the just, and the Lord will surely plead with thee, whom thou hast long re­belled against, and walked in thy pride, and nourished thy self in volup­tuousnesse, as a beast for the slaughter, and in arrogancy hath thy steps [Page 3] been found, Oh! thy heart hath been defiled, and thy waies are waies of grievousnesse, and thy paths are polluted before the Lord, and thou hast not done the thing that is just in his sight, but hast chosen thy own waies, and trusted in thy own wisdom. Take heed now therefore, O City of London for God will be too strong for thee, and thy strength shall fall before him, and thou must come to an account for thy deeds, and then where will be thy refuge, or what shall be thy shelter? will thy multi­tude of men deliver thee from God, or the greatnesse of thy strength prevail against the Almighty? If so, then mayest thou stand in thy waies O City of London, but if not, thy misery will be great, and who shall bemoan thee in that day, or pity thee in the time of thy distresse? For­asmuch as thou hast refused the counsel of the Lord, and rejected the voyce of his servants in the midst of thee, and hearkned not to his word in thy own bowels, but also slighted the many warnings of the Lord by his servants, who were sent of him in love to thee, that thou might come to serve him, and not thy own pleasure, proceeding on from year to year like a monstrous woman, who regardeth not the voice nor person of husband nor friend; Oh! what shall be said unto thee? must thou needs be left for desolation? and must thou be left as a woman forsaken? will thy lovers help thee in the day of trouble? or thy delightsome pleasures preserve thy heart from judgement, or thy glorious riches hide thee from the burning torments? If thou lovest thy wages of vanity more then God, and thy hearts lust more than thy Maker, and wilt not turn speedily from it to seek the Lord in thy heart, then mayest thou post on (as thou art going) hastily to the pit, and with much eagernesse to the gulf of misery, where none can help thee; And then will thy feasting be turned into famine, thy beauty into dust, thy glory into shame, and thy honour into contempt, as thou hast seen it come to pass upon others, whose glory and strength was as great as thine, by whom thou hast not taken warning by a through and speedy returning unto the Lord with all thy heart.

Therefore will God search thee and judge thee according to what is found in the midst of thee, and thou shalt be awakned in the day of Gods anger, & be sensible of the torment when it come [...]h; For though God hath also tried thee with giving thee thy hearts desire, yet hast thou not been thereby humbled; and though the Lord hath visited thee in loving kind­nesse, yet hast thou walked loftily; nay moreover thou hast taken occa­sion thereby to be the more exalted, and art going in the steps of them that the Lord so lately for such things) overturned before thee, that it cannot yet be forgotten, and dost Thou or the Rulers in thee think to establish your selves by acting such things, for which God overturned [Page 4] many mightier then you? Therefore O City think not to establish thy self by blood, nor to be setled by way of revenge, for though some men may have done some things unjust against some of you (and others) so that God may justly by you scourge them sore for it, yet wherein you do it in the way of revenge, or to avenge your own cause, or to set up your selves in self ends like them before you, therein God will also find out a scourge for you. And this I have seen that the Great men of the earth stand in slippery places, and their great strength before the Lord is as smoak before the wind.

My counsell is therefore, That thou fear the Lord, and turn from the way that thou art in, and let thy Judges know that the Lord will judge them, and let thy Rulers understand that the Lord will rule over their strength and wisdom, and let thy Teachers perceive that God is come to teach his own children. And let the Kings heart be upright before the Lord in this the day of his tryall, and time of visitation from God, ( the shortnesse or length thereof being [...]id from him, over whom God ruleth as it plea­seth him,) who is cutting his work short in righteousnesse; Therefore let all thy inhabitants, O thou great City, from the highest to the lowest, take good heed unto their waies, and the intents which are in them, for the Lord seeth the secrets of all your hearts.

ANd that thou mayest not altogether di [...]esteem of this vis [...]on concer­ning thee, and that thy wise men may not esteem it as a thing of nought (which is published for thy good, and brought forth for thy warning, and declared to set before thee thy state at hand, that thou mightest be warned before-hand, and come to find something in thy self, whereby thou might stand in the day of triall, and endure in the hour of trouble, or otherwise Gods servants might seale up the visions and revelations of God in the book of secrets, and treasure them up in the enlightned chambers of the heart, where God is revealing his secrets to those that fear him) Therefore shall I write what hath been formerly shewed, most whereof being come to passe, and the rest hasteneth.

In my former vision, in the dayes of the former Rulers, I saw on a hill many trees together standing which were both great and tall, but they were very old, and of a long standing, and many of their lofty boughs were broken and battered, and many hanged downward, which pressed down the trees, and they were old, withering, and decaying, and had not grown along time, & were but as a wonder to the beholders, though they had been of great account, and the chief trees among (or over) the rest; and it was so that I beheld them much, even with admiration, to [Page 5] see such trees in such a state, which was more to this purpose than is here exprest; and I beheld untill all these trees were rooted up out of the earth, and so overturned every one, and their dead bodies lay in a con­fused manner, and were fallen one upon another, and the ground upon which they stood was broken up, and then there was some room and liberty, and light came in, and I walked and looked every way, both upon the light, and the great desolation of these great ones. The inter­pretation whereof may be read by such as can but see.

And though this great overturning befell those great, tall, and strong trees, and that light came into that ground, over which those fruitlesse trees stood, yet I beheld round about, and near unto it much briars, brambles, and thorns in abundance, which covered the earth, and it was such rubbish, that it was never like to be fit for any thing, but to have a fire kindled among it; And it was so thick and so strong that there was no passing in nor through it, but onely where the narrow way was, and there also those briars would catch on every side; And he that passed through must stoop very low; And what those briars and thorns were, let those brambles read, who covere [...] the earth with their multitudes, in raging, swearing, cursing, shouting, roaring, and drinking the health, (as they call it) of their King at his coming.

And near unto the place of the destruction of those great trees, was there a Child in great desolation, in a close place, where it had been a long time, and was not like yet to be released, but remained in want and misery, which mine eye pitied, and in irons, and my heart was sadned for it, and the more because none came to visit it, nor succour it; for it was in a desolate place, and unseemly, and few had regard un­to it, and yet there were some hopes it might be delivered. And this was a true resemblance of the state of the seed of God in all the world.

And in plainnesse concerning Oliver Cromwell, and his son Richard, (late called) Protectors, the vision from God was shewed to me, (before the downfall of either of them) thus.

And I beheld a great and mighty tree, much bigger then ever I saw before, and appearing without sap or vertue in it, or leaf, bough, or branch upon it, (much lesse fruit) and the top of it was broad, (being all big) much like unto the top of Pauls steeple in London, and close by this great old tree, grew up another tree, as out of his root, and be­longed to him, but not both in one body, though very near together, and stood both upon one foundation, and this was as a little stripling tree, which also was without leaves, or branches, or any thing to bear fruit, so that I admired to see it so with the young tree, for I looked for branches or leaves, but there were none.

And whilst I was beholding of them, a man being sent came in much haste, with an axe in his hand, to cut down the great mighty old tree, which seemed strange to me, that one man should adventure upon so great a work, to cut down such a tree as that, for the lower part of the tree was exceeding big, and almost as broad upon the earth as half the heighth; so that I thought he had need of three more to help him, and that one man could scarce cut him down with one axe, if he stood hew­ing all his life time; But I much more admired to see the confidence of the man that came with speed with his axe, who made no stop at all, because of the greatnesse of him, nor any thing else, but as soon as ever he could get to him smote with the edge of his axe, and stroke between the ground and the tree, so that I soon perceived he intended to separate between the tree and the ground on which he stood; and the man in the might of his strength, stroke but three blows in all, but he separated the tree from the earth on which he stood, and immediately the tree fell with a mighty overthrow, and the foundation of the tree was altogether rot­ten and not one root at all, but where the root should be was rottenness, and the earth shook at his fall, and many Great men stood amazed, and fear seized on many, because of the great sudden fall thereof.

And as this great tree fell, I saw under the foundation of the young Tall Tree that stood near the other, and it was much like to fall presently after, and was almost down on the one hand, and then almost down on the other, and yet it recovered and stood up for a time, having no root but rottenness; And the great tree fell from him on the one side, and the earth parted from him on two sides more, so that onely upon one side in four (or less) the earth cleaved to him, and he being slender and tall without root, was not like long thus to stand, neither did Richard.

And I likewise beheld many more smaller trees, and the man with his axe in his hand cut them all down at the butt, somewhat above the ground, and so left the stumps in the earth, and therefore it might be possible for them to grow up again; As some did come up again who were put down, but fell the second time through disobedience.

And after all this I beheld also many more trees in abundance, yea more numerous then the other, coming up out of the earth, and cover­ing the face thereof, and growing up apace, which were not yet ready to be cut down; and I saw the man with the axe in his hand, standing still for a time (having cut down all the other) untill those should be ready to be cut down; and he waited till the time came, and was in a readinesse with his axe in his hand ready to strike, when those abundance of trees should come up to their growth, which hastened. And let those who are now come up read this, and let the whole C [...]ty of [Page 7] London t [...]ke heed (as I said before) and repent with speed, and turn to the Lord whose servant I am, called