The lines (I confesse impartially) are very mysterious, and withall they are involved in a stupendious obscurity. They seeme as aenigmaticall, as Sphynk his hidden Riddle, yet I doubt not but that your judicious minds will prove as auspitious unto this, as Oedipus did to his.

You may enucleate the genuine sence, and signification of the words, if you doe but seriously revolve them.

When the formidable Armado was dissipated in 88. this King­dome did flourish a long time in peace and prosperous tranquil­lity, unto one thousand six hundred and thirty foure or five: Af­ter Queene Elizabeth died, King James came out of Scotland, and inherited the Imperiall Crowne after her.

A plot all men know was most nefariously [...]atched in his [Page] Reigne, to wit, the Gunpowder treason: which not preven­ting him, he swaied the Scepter very peacefully in a great suc­cession of future time.

Prince Henry the 9. of that name died young, and King Charles the first of that name reigned next in Majesty (whom God long preserve, and protect from the wicked Plots of his enemies.) The beginning of these perilous times, began in 1639. The next foure verses I will leave to the exposition of the Reader hereof.

The Philosophers have given their unite astipulation, and withall the Astrologians have affirmed in their solid assertions, that when Saturne hath any conjunction with Jupiter, great wars and bloudy times shall ensue, and I am sure their opinions have not prooved fallible in this respect. Many false Prophets are now risen amongst us, and do prophecy false things to the people, who dare presume to preach in Tubs to their schismaticall Audi­tors: whom they delude and suggest vaine imaginations unto them, that they are sent from heaven, and have the spirit of God, when they have nothing but the spirit of error and falshood. Mahomet hath shewen indeed his prize sufficiently amongst us, for too many (I suppose) in our times rather Mahometans, then true Christians. The alteration of Religion hath beene very great, and tossed too and fro by the various winde of every ones opinion.

The last two verses I refer to the judgement of the Reader: for I will nominate no man particularly.

This prophecy is stupendious, and as it includes a mystery, so it includes verity withall: as by the former it is involved in ob­scurity, so by the later it is illuminated in apparent Truth.

The demonstration of prophetick divinations predictates the future estate of a Kingdome, and whatsoever hath bin expressed in this lately mentioned, is already fulfilled in exemplary rela­tions.

But the distracted opinions of most men are still so promiscu­ous, that wee want Prophets enough to exclaime against them; for some they will not heare, others they neglect, others they in a despicable detestation doe contemne.

But God of his infinite mercy grant, that we may hereafter all make true use of the sincere prophecy of him, and his holy Gospell, that these various mists of errors may be expelled, these roaring waves of Schisme may be calmed, and the distemper [...] of the whole Realme cured perfectly.

WHen shee heard King Henry the eighth should bee King, and Cardinall Wolsey should be at Yorke, she said that Cardinall Wolsey should never come to Yorke with the King, and the Cardinall hearing being angry, sent the Duke of Suffolke, the Lord Piercy, and the Lord Darcy to her, who came with their men disguised to the Kings house neere Yorke, where leaving their men, they went to Master Besley to Yorke, and desired him to goe with them to mother Shiptons house, where when they came they knocked at the doore, shee said, Come in Master Besley, and those honourable Lords with you, and Master Besley would have put in the Lords before him, but shee said, come in Master Besley, you know the way, but they doe not. This they thought strange that she should know them, and never saw them; then they went into the house, where there was a great fire, and she bade them wel­come, calling them all by their names, and sent for some Cakes and Ale, and they drunke and were very merry. Mother Shipton, said the Duke, if you knew what we come about, you would not make us so welcome, and shee said the Messenger should nobe [...] hang'd; Mother Shipton, said the Duke, you said the Cardinall should never see Yorke; Yea, said shee, I said hee might see Yorke, but never come at it; But said the Duke when he comes to Yorke thou shalt be burned; Wee shall see that, said shee, and plucking her Handkerchieffe off her head shee threw it into the fire, and it would not burne; then shee tooke her staffe and turned it into the fire, and it would not burn, then she took it and put it on againe; Now (said the Duke) what meane you by this? if this had burn'd (said shee) I might have burned. Mother Shipton (quoth the Duke) what think you of me? my Love said shee, the time will come you will be as low as I am, and that's a low one indeed. My Lord Percy said, what say you of me? My Lord (said she) shooe your Horse in the quicke, & you shall doe well, but your body will be buried in Yorke pavement, and your head shall be stolne from the Barre and carried into France. Then said the Lord Darcy, and what [Page] thinke you of me? Shee said, you have made a great Gun, shoot it off, for it will doe you no good, you are going to warre, you will pain many a man, but you will kill none; so they went away.

Not long after the Cardinall came to Cawood, and going to the top of the Tower, hee asked where Yorke was, and how farre it was thither, and said that one had said hee should never see Yorke; Nay, said one, she said you might see Yorke, but never come at it. He vowed to burne her when hee came to Yorke. Then they shewed him Yorke, and told him it was but eight miles thence? he said that he will be soone there: but being sent for by the King, he died in the way to London, at Liecester, of a lask; And Shiptons Wife said to Master Besley, yonder is a fine stall built for the Cardinall in the Minster, of Gold, Pearl, and pre­cious stones, goe and present one of the Pillars to King Henry, and he did so.

Master Besley seeing these things fall out as shee had foretold, desired her to tell him some more of her Prophesies; Master, said shee, before that Owes Bridge and Trinitie Church meet, they shall build on the day, and it shall fall in the night, until they get the highest stone of Trinitie Church, to be the lowest stone of Owes Bridge; then the day will come when the North shall rue it wondrous sore, but the South shall rue it for evermore; When Hares kindle on cold harth stones, and Lads shall marry Ladies, and bring them home, then shall you have a yeare of pyning hunger, and then a dearth without Corne; A wofull day shall be seen in England, a King and Queene, the first comming of the King of Scots shall be at Holgate Town, but hee shall not come through the Barre, and when King of the North shall be at Lon­don Bridge, his Tayle shall be at Edenborough; After this shall wa­ [...]er come over Owes Bridge, and a Windmill shall be set on a [...]ower, and an Elme-tree shall lye at every mans doore, at that [...]me women shall weare great Hats and great Bands, and when [...]ere is a Lord Major at Yorke, let him beware of a stab; When [...]wo Knights shall fall out in the Castle yard, they shall never bee kindly all their lives after; When all Colton Hagge hath born Crops of Corne, seven yeares after you shall heare newes, there shall two Iudges goe in and out at Mungate Barre.

Then best for them that have the least, and worst for them that have the most, you shall not know of the Warre over night, yet you shall have it in the morning, and when it comes it shall last three yeares, between Cadr [...]n and Aire shall be great war­fare, when all the world is as a lost, it shall be called Christs crost, when the battell begins, it shall be, where Crookback Richard made his fray, they shall say, To warfare for your King for halfe a Crowne a day, but stirre not (she will say) to warfare for your King, on paine of hanging, but stirre not, for he that goes to complaine, shall not come back againe. The time will come when England shall tremble and quake for feare of a dead man that shall be heard to speake, then will the Dragon give the Bull a great snap, and when the one is downe they will goe to Lon­don Towne; Then there will be a great battell between England and Scotland, and they will bee pacified for a time, and when they come to Brammamore, they fight and are againe pacified for a time, then there wilbe a great Battel at Knavesmore, and they will be pacified for a while; then there will be a great bat­tell between England and Scotland at Stoknmore; Then will Ra­vens sit on the Crosse and drinke as much bloud of Nobles, as of the Commons, then woe is me, for London shall be destroyed for ever after; Then there will come a woman with one eye, and she shall tread in many mens bloud to the knee, and a man lean­ing on a staffe by her, and she shall say to him, what art thou? and he shall say, I am King of the Scots, and she shall say, goe with me to my house, for there are three Knights, and he will go with her, and stay there three daies and three nights: then will England be lost; and they will cry twice of a day England is lost; Then there will be three Knights in Petergate in Yorke, and the one shall not know of the other; there shall be a Childe borne in Pomfret with three thumbes, and those three Knights will give him three Horses to hold, while they winne England, and all Noble bloud shall be gone but one, and they shall carry him to Sheriffe Nuttons Castle six miles from Yorke, and he shall die there, and they shall chus [...] there an Earle in the field, and hang­ing their Horses on a thorne, And rue th [...] time that ever they were borne, to see so much bloud shed. Then they will [Page] come to Yorke to besiege it, and they shall keepe them out three daies, and three nights, and a penny Loafe shall be with­in the Barre at halfe a Crown, and without the Barre at a peny; And they will sweare if they will not yeeld, to blow up the Towne wals. Then they will let them in, and they will hang up the Major, Shrie [...]fes and Aldermen, and they will goe into Crouch Church, there will three Knights goe in, and but one come out againe, and he will cause Proclamation to be made, that any man may take House, Tower, or Bower for twenty one years, and whilst the World endureth, there shall ne­ver be warfare againe, nor any more Kings or Queenes, but the Kingdome shall bee governed by three Lords, and then Yorke shall be London. And after this shall be a white Harvest of Corne gotten in by women. Then shall be in the North, that one wo­man shall say unto another, Mother I have seene a man to day▪ and for one man there shall bee a thousand women, there shall be a man sitting upon Saint James Church hill weeping his fill; And after that a Ship come sayling up the Thames till it come a­gainst London, and the Master of the Ship shall weepe, and the Mariners shall aske him why he weepeth, being he hath made so good a Voyage, and he shall say; A what a goodly City this was, none in the World comparable to it, and now there is scarce left any house that can let us have drink for our mony.