I Shall begin first with Mr. Lillies, grounded on that (as he said) of Mother Shiptons, but was not hers but Ambrose Merlins concerning London, Published in his Englands Prophetical Merlin, Anno 1642 page 91. the words are as followeth.

On which he saith, ‘That London in England (by reason of the unlucky Position of Mars in her Sign, and being Cadent from Aries and Mercury his Dispositer in Combust and in Detriment) shall indure many a hard shock, two plagues, (but from Mercuries being Combust, and in detriment he might, and its a wonder to mee why he did not say, that one of those two Plagues might have been a fiery one, as indeed it proved to be) extream dammage in her Wealth, the loss of many Valiant Citizens, but it shall be with Honour and to her perpetual Re­nown.—Nor shall any man yet alive s [...]e the days Mother Shipton spake of concerning London; yet in time all Cities must have an end: But I rather think that about the year 1683. the City shall be in great dan­ger, and then come to a final Catastrophe during the Revolution of that fifth Conjunction.’

So far Mr. Lilly in that page, but its danger shall be more par­ticularly declared anon.

But by that fifth Conjunction is to be understood that of Saturn and Jupiter, in the Fiery Triplicity, and in Leo, on the 20 day of October, Anno 1682. which will be their fifth from that seventh great Conjunction of theirs Anno 1603. when they left the Wa­tery, and entred into the Fiery Trigon, on the 7 of December in the [Page 2] said year, which kind of Conjunctions seldom or never hapned, (if Credit may be given to History, Antiquity or Experience,) (as Mr. Lilly saith,) but they were followed with great and strange Changes in the World, both in Civil and Ecclesiastical States, and are as seldom accompanied with any propitious Suc­cesses to England in general, or London in particular.

• 1. For at their first entrance into Aries, called by Ptolomy the first of the Zodiake, and the Arabians the fiery Trigon, which was their first Conjunction after the Creation, and was called their great Conjunction, and was before Enochs Translation.
• 2. Their Second before Noahs Flood, and was followed with the sad Universal Deluge, Nimrods usurped Monarchy, and the building of Babel.
• 3. Their third, before Moses bringing the Israelites out of E­gypt, and the giving of the Law.
• 4. Their fourth was also followed with erecting of the Empire of the Medes.
• 5. Their Fifth with that of the Romans, and the Incarnation of Christ, and Publishing the Gospel to the Jews.
• 6. Their Sixth with the Translation of the said Empire to the Germans.
• 7. And their Seventh great, yea and greatest, being their Sabbatical Conjunction, was Anno 1603. which was followed, first, with the Death of Queen Elizabeth, a Mother to the English Nation, at which time was a great Plague in London. And second­ly, The raising the Monarchy of great Brittain, and Ireland to the Family of the Stewarts in Scotland; and could a more memorable change happen in this part of the World, then for a Scotch King to become King of England and Ireland, without blows, considering the Antipathy between both Nations? And was not this a raising of a new Monarchy, and a great one too, of which James the sixth of Scotland was the first King, and our King Charles the second was and is the first King of the said Race, born in it, and to it, and consequently a proper Native of it, God grant he may live long to enjoy it.

And here we are to take Notice, That these said seven Conjun­ctions of the two superior Planets are all the great Conjunctions that have been since the Creation; or that will be in some Cen­turies of years, if ever any more be at all, of which Mr. Lilly doubt­ed, [Page 3] with many more, the Sabbatical one being now already past; nei­ther do they come to pass above once in eight hundred years.-And further, that there have been but fifteen more in all of those two Pla­nets, since the Creation, as appears by Ptolomy's Table of all the Conjunctions that have been of all the Plannets since, as aforesaid, of which said Table the Author hath a Copy now extant of Mr. Lillies Transcribing.

• 1. Which said 15 Conjunctions past; with the next to come this next October, are called lesser, or minor Conjunctions.
• 2. But the next Conjunction that followed that of 1603. was that which came to pass in seven degrees of Leo, in the same Trigon, Anno 1623. and was followed first with King James his death, and then with that Plague of which was said to dye above 50 thousand People in London Anno 1625.
• 3. Their third Conjunction fell out to be Anno 1642. in which said year began our intestine War between King and Parliament, which lasted more or less with some Intermissions until 1652. in which year or the next we had a dull Saturnine Comet, on Contem­plation whereof, Mr. Lilly writ a second Prediction, for matter and form as followeth.

But more remarkable was that which followed their fourth Con­junction in Sagitarius, and fiery Trigon, Anno 1663. when all the Planets met in that house as at a general Rendezvouz to consult the effecting the heavenly decrees, and was followed, first, with three great Comets, in less then Seven Months space, and then secondly with the greatest Pestilential Plague that ever London knew, to the Destruction of near an hundred thousand People, thereby leaving many houses desolate of the Inhabitants, Anno 1665. and then with that dreadful fire which Consumed most of the City and as [Page 4] much of the Suburbs, as it left of the City, thereby leaving more Inhabitants destitute of houses, Anno 1666. by all which we may observe, that the Effects of these last Conjunctions were speedy and severe, though not of any long Continuance.

But what manner of Effects have already or may yet precede this now so near approaching on, a very few years may probably determin; and for as much as the former were, as aforesaid, what may we expect otherwise then that this coming of the same or the like cause, should produce the like Effects, unless God of his great Mercys be pleased to prevent the same.

3. Mr. Lillies third Prediction, saying, page 25. of the same Book, I judge that privately by Lies, Treacheries, fained and dissembled Trea­ties and Embassadors, and by the Policies of a Jesuitical Faction, all over Europe, the true Protestant Religion will be infinitely distressed, and the heavenly intentions Impedited; and all those Countreys profes­sing Protestantisme exceedingly molested by so great a Compact of Vil­lains, and false hearted Traytors lurking in the Clossets and Bosoms of Princes, that many shall think that Popery shall return to its old Seat in every Countrey, &c.

Consider who are Enemies to the Protestant Religion, viz. The Popish Priests, Jesuits and Papists, with their Adherents; and where they Harbour, and Contrive their Mischiefs (if Mr. Lil­ly were not mistaken.)

4. His fourth Prediction page 110. of the same Book. Woe to a great Family in Europe, That was, is now, and shall not be; 'tis not old, its not Antient, but like an untimely Birth, its cut off and shall not flourish in Branch or Root. Good Lord! shall the number of Fifty cut off more than five, or shall less then 90. be alotted for four, shall the Virgin be barren, and the Lyon have no Issue? shall less then 36 end in two? shall the second end in a Cipher? and shall seven come to be one, and then none?

The fifth of Mr. Lillies, I intend to reserve for the close of the Treatise.

Mr. Gadburies Prediction in his Almanack, for the Year 1678.

What art thou, O Crafty but smooth Tongued Enemy, whether Courtier, Causidian or Ecclesiastick; that thus delightest to obstruct the Peace of Kingdoms, and Republicks, and playest thy Game un­der a shew of Friendship, Piety and Conscience; with a seeming com­pliance with the things thou really opposest? shall time be so much a [Page 5] Traytor to Truth and Goodness, as not at length to pull off thy Hypo­critical Vizor? Be quiet Friends, it cannot yet be, Eighty Three is not yet come; But the Heavens and Stars are by Gods Permission prepa­ring matter.

Having thus given the Nation in general, and the City in particular, a Prospect of some of the dangers predicted against them, and in possibility may be brought upon them, and by whom, and about what time ( viz.) Soon after the Celebration of that Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, spoken of by Mr. Lilly, and is already preceded as followeth.

First, by a restraint put upon Liberty of Conscience in Religi­ous things, contrary to some Engagements past to another pur­pose; and procured at the Request and Solicitation of such men as peradventure are of no Religion themselves, or at the best, such a Religion, whose Principle is to conclude (Papist-like) with Nulla Fides, otherwise it had never been desired, but we may thank the first Parliament for that. A second precedent is a Mercurial War managed with Tongue and Pen, apt Weapons for such a Warfare.

Which is in all the Nation proclaimed by those distinguishing Nicknames of Whiggs and Tories obscenely and provokingly put upon the Adherents to the two adverse Parties in the quarrel; id est, the Protestants and Papists, just as it was before the War began between the late King and Parliament, Anno 1642. when called Cavaliers and Round-Heads.

A Third is, some apparent dangers which the City of Lon­don [Page 6] does now labour under, which may be part of the danger Mr. Lilly said the City should be in about 1683.

The first is that of their Charter, called for by the King with a Quo Warranto, and as some think is in danger of being lost.

The second is their Priviledges assaulted by their present Lord Mayor, who (as his Lordship thinks) has drank the Commons out of their Priviledge of Electing two Sheriffs. The third is their Religion in common with the rest of the Nation, and hath been and still is designedly assaulted by its common Enemies the Papists.

But the fourth, last, and greatest, and worst danger, preceding the foresaid Conjunction, is the Miserable Divisions the whole Na­tion in general is fallen into, and labours under, making themselves two distinct parties, in absolute Opposition against each other, of which kind of danger it may be feared, that there is but little hope to escape from, unless the Lord send help some other way then is yet thought of. Therefore let's yet consider Christs Words, A City divided against it self cannot stand. The present Condition, we now stand Labouring under, may probably be the matter, Mr. Gadbury said that the Heavens and Stars were preparing for Eighty three.

This is it that the Popish Priests, Jesuits, and other Papists longed for ever since they miscarryed in their Design Anno 1678. and is the Product of what the Addressors from the North to West desired at the first, and what some Gentlemen near home Solici­ted so often for since, and which some of the Ministry, Magistracy, and People of the Church of England, do so violently prosecute against the Dissenters abroad, and which the Papists, Atheists and Debauchees of the Nation, do now rejoice in, and hope to con­found the Protestant Religion, Laws, and Government by, a­gainst which, together with Popery with its ill Circumstances, or for avoiding thereof, a War, with its doubtful events, we should pray to God to deliver us from. Which War I mention the rather, because Mr. Lilly in his Almanacks for 77 and 81. saith, That the breach of Just Priviledges, Antient Customes, and Long-Enjoyed-Rights, will Animate the generality in some Nation to a strong and Sturdy Rebellion.

For preventing of all which, that God may bless King Charles the Second, with Life to the height of old Age, shall be the dayly Prayers of this Author.