155 Did not the Devil appear to Martin And wou'd have gull'd him with a Trick, Did he not help the Dutch to purge . 153, 154. Who after prov'd himself a Witch,-And made a Rod for his own Breech.] "These two Verfes (fays Dr. Hutchinson, Hiftorical Effay, p. 65.) "relate to that which I have often heard, "that Hopkins went on fearching and fwimming the poor Creatures "till fome Gentlemen out of Indignation at the Barbarity, took "him and tied his own Thumbs and Toes, as he used to tie others; " and when he was put into the Water, he himself swam as they "did. This clear'd the Country of him, and it was a great deal "of Pity that they did not think of the Experiment fooner." . 155, 156. Did not the Devil appear to Martin-Luther in Germany, for certain?] Luther in his Menfalia fpeaks of the Devil's appearing to him frequently, and how he used to drive him away by fcoffing and jeering him. For he obferves that the Devil being a proud Spirit, cannot bear to be contemn'd and fcoff'd: "I often (fays he, p. 381.) faid to him, Devil, I have bewray'd my Breeches, canft thou fmell that?" (Dr. B.) And yet fome Popish Writers (fee Epistle to the Reader, perfix'd to the Tranflation of Henry Stephens's Apology for Herodotus, 1607. p. 3. from Cochlæus, Staphylus, &c.) affirm, that Luther was begot by an Incubus, and ftrangled by the Devil. (Vide etiam Wolfii Lection. Memorab. Anno 1550. Par. Poft. p. 593.) Mr. Oldham alludes to this Afperfion, [Third Satire against the Jefuites.) Make Luther Monster, by a Fiend begot, With Wings, and Tail, and cloven Foot. . 159. Did he not help the Dutch, &c.] In the Beginning of the Civil Wars of Flanders, the common People of Antwerp in a Tumult broke open the Cathedral Church, to demolish Images and Shrines; and did fo much Mischief in a fmall Time, that Strada writes, there were feveral Devils feen very bufy among them, otherwise it had been impoffible. Strad. de Bello Belgico. Dec. 1. Lib. 1. p. 154. edit. Roma 1640. . 161. Sing Catches to the Saints at Mafcon ] * This Devil deliver'd his Oracles in Verfe, which he fung to Tunes, and made Several Lampoons upon the Huguenots. There Appear in divers Shapes to Kelly, I' th' Caufe's Service Prisoner? As Withers in immortal Rhime 170 Has register'd to after-time. There was a Treatife call'd, The Devil of Mafcon, or the true Relation of the chief Things, which any unclean Spirit said at Mascon in Burgundy, in the House of Mr. Francis Perreaud, Minifter of the reformed Church in the faid Town: Written by the fame Perreaud Soon after the Apparition, which was in the Year 1612, but not publib'd till the Year 1653, forty one Years after the Thing was faid to be done. Tranflated by Dr. Peter du Moulin, at the Request of Mr. Boyle. [See Webfier's Difplay of fuppos'd Witchcraft, chap. 16. p. 293.] *. 163. Appear in divers, &c.] *The Hiftory of Dr. Dee, and the Devil, publish'd by Mer. Cafaubon, Ifaac Fil. Prebendary of Canterbury, has a large Account of all thofe Paffages; in which the Style of the true and falfe Angels appears to be penn'd by one and the fame Perfon. . 164. And speak i' th' Nun of Loudon's Belly.] The Nun of Loudon in France, and all her Tricks have been seen by many Perfons of Quality of this Nation yet living, who have made very good Obfervations upon the French Book, written upon that Occafion. Vide Hiftoire de Diable de Loudun, ou de la Poffeffion de Religieufe Urfulines, & de la omdemnation & du Suplice D' Urbain Grandiere Cure de la meme Ville: Aftrol. & Mag. 8° N° 14137. Catal. Bibliotheca Harleian. vol. 2. Vide N° 14300. *. 165, 166. Meet with the Parliament Committee--At WoodRock .] * A Committee of the long Parliament fitting in the King's House in Woodstock-Park, were terrify'd with several Apparitions, the Particulars whereof were then the News of the whole Nation. See the Narrative at large. Dr. Plot's Nat. Hift. of Oxfordshire, p. 214, &c. 167. At Sarum, &c.]* Withers has a long Story in Doggerel, of a Soldier of the King's Army, who being a Prifoner at Salif bury, and drinking a Health to the Devil upon his Knees, was carried away by him through a fingle Pane of Glass, . 169. As Withers in immortal Rhime, &c.] This Withers was a Puritanical Officer in the Parliament Army, and a great Pretender to Poetry, as appears from his Poems enumerated by A. Wood, (4ther. Oxon. vol. 1. Col. 274, &c. 1ft edit.) but fo bad a Poet, Do not our great Reformers use And Caftles taken yet i' th' Air? Poet, that when he was taken Prisoner by the Cavaliers, Sir John Denham the Poet (fome of whofe Land, at Egham in Surry, Withers had got into his Clutches) defir'd his Majefty not to hang him; because fo long as Withers liv'd, Denham would not be accounted the Poet in England. Wood, ibid. Col. 274. Bishop Kennet's Regifter and Chronicle, p. 694. 66 . 171, 172. Do not our great Reformers ufe-This Sidropbel to forebode News?] Hear, O Reader! one of these great Reformers thus canting forth the Services of Lilly. "You do not know the many Services this Man hath done for the Parliament these many Years; or how many Times in our greatest Distresses we applying unto him, he hath refresh'd our languishing Expectations; he never fail'd us of a Comfort in our most unhappy Diftreffes. I affure you his Writings have kept up the Spirits "both of the Soldiery, the honeft People of this Nation, and many of us Parliament-Men." [See Lilly's life, p. 71.] (Mr. B.) Lilly was one of the close Committee to confult about the King's Execution. [See Mr. Echard's Hiftory of England, vol. 2. p. 641. And for Pay, foretold Things in Favour of all Parties, as has been before observ'd, the Truth of which is confirm'd from the following Paffage, in a Letter of Intelligence to Secretary Thurloe from Bruges, Sept. 29, 1656, (Thurloe's State-Papers. vol. 5. p. 431.) Lilly, that Rogue, who lives by Strand-Bridge, hath fent a Letter unto Sir Edward Walker, who is one of his Ma"jefty's Secretaries, who is alfo an Aftrologer, to wish them to "have a good Heart, and be couragious. He was confident, and "forefaw by Art, that the King and his Adherents would be re"ftored in the Year 57 to the Throne and Kingdom of England: "And hereupon they depend much, because fuch a Prophet faith "it; who hath rightly prophefy'd of the former King's Death; "fo he must needs have an infallible Prophecy of this Man's Re"ftauration." 66 . 173. To write of Victories next Year.] Mr. Butler (Memoirs of the Years 1649-50 Remains) has expos'd his Ignorance in the following Words: "O (fays he) the Infallibility of Erra-Pater Lilly! The Wizard perhaps may do much at Hot-Cockles, and "Blind-man's Buff; but I durft undertake to poze him in a Riddle, "and his Intelligence in a Dog in a Wheel: An overturn'd Salt is a furer Prophet, the Sieve and Sheers are Oracles to him: A "whining Pig fees further into a Storm; Rats will prognofticate "the Ruin of a Kingdom with more Certainty: And as for Pal meftry, a Gipfy, or a DERIC (See the Word D.E.R.I.C. "explain'd, 175 Of Battles fought at Sea, and Ships Sunk two Years hence, the laft Eclipfe? A total Overthrow giv'n the King 66 In Cornwall, Horfe and Foot, next Spring? explain'd, Gruteri Fax Art. Tom. 1. cap. 3. p. 322.) may be "his Tutor, the Wittal is cuckolded over and over, and yet the "OEdipus is blind; like the old Witch, who being confulted to "discover a Thief, could not discover who had fh--t at her own "Door. Indeed he is excellent at foretelling Things paft; and "calculates the Deputy's Nativity after he is beheaded; and by "starting a Prophecy, he excites the credulous Vulgar to fulfil it: "Thus can he antedate Cromwell's Malice, defpose the King "five Years before-hand, and instruct Rolph how to be damn'd. "Impious Villain, to make the Spheres like the affociated Counties, " and the heavenly Houfes, fo many lower Houses, fix a Guilt upon the Stars, and perfuade the Planets were Rebels, as if it were a Sequeftration Star, or any Conftellation look'd like a "Committee." His Reputation was loft upon his falfe Prognoftic upon the Eclipfe, that was to happen on the 9th of March 1652, commonly call'd Black Monday, in which his Predictions not being fully answer'd, Mr. Heath obferves, (Chronicle, p. 210.) "That he was regarded no more for the future, than one of his own worthlefs Almanacks." Dr. James Young (Sidrophel vapulans,) makes the following Remark upon him. I have (fays he) read all Lil"ly's Almanacks, from 40 to 60 in the holy Time of that great "Rebellion, to which he was acceffary; and find him always the "whole Breadth of Heaven wide from Truth: Scarce one of his "Predictions verified, but a thousand contrary wife: It's hard, that "a Man fhooting at Rovers so many Years together, fhould never "hit the right Mark." [See Sir Edward Walker's Hiftorical Collections. Publifhed 1707. p. 227, &c. 66 66 . 174. And Gaffles taken yet in th' Air ?] A Sneer probably upon the Report publish'd in 1642, in a Tract, intitled, A great Wonder in Heaven, fhewing the late Apparitions and prodigious Noifes of War and Battles feen at Edge-Hill, near Keinton in Northamptonshire-Certified under the Hands of William Wood, Efq; Juftice of the Peace in the faid County: Samuel Marshall, Preacher of God's Word at Keinton, and other Perfons of Quality. London, printed for Thomas Jackson, Jan. 23, Anno Dom. 1642, penes me. In the 36th Year of the Reign of Edward the Third, Ralph Higden fays (fee Polychronicon tranflated by Treviza, Lib. Ult. chap. 1. fol. 317. b.) there appeared both in England and France, and many other Places, two Cafles in the Air, out of which iffued two Hofls of armed Men, the one clothed in white, the other in black. VOL. II. B *. 179, And has not he point-blank foretold 180 Whatf'e'er the clofe Committee would? . 179, 180. And has not he point-blank foretold-What'e'e the clofe Committee would?] The Parliament took a fure Way to fecure all Prophecies, Prodigies, and Almanack-News from Stars, &c. in Favour of their own Side, by appointing a Licenfer thereof, and ftrictly forbidding and punishing all fuch as were not licenfed. Their Man for this Purpose was the famous Booker, an Aftrologer, Fortune-Teller, Almanack-Maker, &c. See . 1093 of this Canto, and the Note thereon. See alfo Note upon Part I. Canto II. . 650. The Words of his License in Rushworth, are very remarkable. For Mathematicks, Almanacks, and Prognoftications. If we may believe Lilly, both he and Booker did conjure and prognofticate well for their Friends the Parliament. He tells us, "When he applied for a License for his Merlinus Anglicus Junior, (in April 1644.) Booker wondered at the Book, made "many impertinent Obliterations, framed many Objections, and "fwore it was not poffible to diftinguish between a King and "Parliament, and at laft licens'd it according to his own Fancy. "Lilly delivered it to the Printer, who being an Arch-Prefbyterian, "had five of the Minifters to inspect it, who could make nothing "of it, but faid it might be printed: For in that he meddled "not with their Dagon," (Lilly's Life, p. 44.) Which Oppofition to Lilly's Book arose from a Jealousy, that he was not then thoroughly in the Parliament's Intereft: Which was true; for he frankly confeffes," That till the Year 1645, he was more Ca"valier than Roundhead, and fo taken Notice of: But after that, "he engaged Body and Soul in the Cause of the Parliament." (Life, p. 45.) Afterwards we find (among other curious Particulars) that when there was a Difference between the Army and Parliament, he and Booker were carried in a Coach with four Horfes to Windsor, (where the Army's head Quarters then were) were feafted in a Garden, where General Fairfax lodg'd, who bid them kindly Welcome, and entered into a Conference with them: (Life, p. 57.) That when Colchefter was befieged Booker and himself were fent for, where they encouraged the Soldiers, affuring them (by Figures) that the Town would fhortly surrender; that they were well entertain'd at the head Quarters two Days. (Life, p. 67, 68.) That in Oliver's Protectorship, all the Soldiers were Friends to Lilly; and the Day of one of their Fights in Scotland, a Soldier stood up with his Anglicus in his Hand, and as the Troops paffed by him, read that Months Prediction aloud, faying, Lo! Hear what Lilly faith, you are in this Month promifed Victory; Fight it out, brave Boys. Lilly's Life, p. 83.) (Mr. B.) |