" and sold at his house in Long Alley in Black Friars, "1653. second edition, with additions, a prophecy "which astonishes all who carefully consider it. It " is in these words.

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"A vision that I had presently after the king's death.

"I thought that I was in a great hall, like the shire"hall, in the castle in Winchester, and there was none there but a judge that sat upon the bench, and myself; "and as I turned to a window north-westward, and looking into the palm of my hand, there appeared to me a 'face, head and shoulders, like the Lord Fairfaxes, and presently it vanished again; then arose the Lord Crom"well, and he vanished likewise; then arose a young face, and he had a crown upon his head, and he vanish"ed also; and another young face arose with a crown "on his head, and he vanished also; and another "young fuce arose with a crown upon his head, and he "vanished also; and another young face arose with a "crown upon his head, and vanished in like manner : “and as I turned the palm of my hand back again to me, "and looked, there did appear no more in it. Then I "turned to the judge, and said to him, There arose in 66 my hand seven, and five of them had crowns; but when "I turned my hand, the blood turned to its veins, and "there appeared no more: so I awoke.

"The interpretation of this vision is, that after the "Lord Cromwell there shall be kings again in England, "which thing is signified unto us by those that arose af"ter him, who were all crowned; but the generations to 66 come may look for a change of the blood, and of the name in the royal seat after five kings reign once passed. 2 Kings x. 30.

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[The words referred to in this text are these, "And the Lord said unto Jehu, because thou hast done

"well,

"well, &c. thy children of the fourth generation shall sit "on the throne of Israel.]

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"The restoration of the monarchy is here plainly predicted; together with the crown's passing from "the house of Stuart into another family. But the prophet at first sight appears to be doubtful about "the number of reigns before that event. He reckons 66 up in his hand only four successions to the monarchy, yet in his speech to the judge he calls them five in his interpretation he says the change shall "be after the reign of five kings; and yet referring, "in conclusion, to a text in the second book of Kings, "we are brought back again to the number four. "But it is this very circumstance which makes the prodigious part of this affair. A good guesser

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(who, an ancient writer says, is the best prophet) "might reasonably conjecture the monarchy, after "the subverter of it, Cromwell, was taken off, would "be restored; and, if it continued in the same fami"ly for four or five generations, that was as much as, "in the ceaseless revolutions of human affairs, could be expected. But we shall find there was something more in this matter. The succession of the "house of Stuart, during the course of these four "generations, was disturbed, and that circumstance "our prophet has distinctly marked out. The four "crowned heads he saw in his hand denote Charles "the II. James II. Queen Mary, and Queen Anne. They are afterwards called five and so they were; "for King William III. shared the sovereignty with Queen Mary, and reigned alone after her. But he being of another family, when the succession in the "house of Stuart is reckoned up, he could not be numbered: so they must be there called four. "When

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"When the prophet reckons the reigns, King Wil"liam comes in, and then they are called five. The "key to this explanation is the text he concludes with "-Thy children of the FOURTH generation shall sit on "the throne.

"A great and extraordinary genius lately deceased, "struck with this wonderful coincidence, hath writ"ten with his own hand in the margin of the page, "these words, A manifest Prophecy. You know who "I mean. But every one must judge for himself, "unless (which I had rather) you would give us your own sentiments upon it.

"But now my hand is in, as you have had one of "his visions, you shall have a dream too, as he tells it "in the 12th page of the first, and the 8th page of "his second edition. My heart was for London; and, "-as one Mr Oliver Thomas preached, Cant. ii. 10. "Arise up, my love, my fair one, and come away,-my heart was allured with it, that I thought it was a hastening of me to London; and at that time, in a dream, methought I was on Islington-hill by the water-house, "and London appeared before me as if it had been burnt "with fire, and there remained nothing of it but a few stone walls: but I made nothing of this dream.

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"Whosoever reflects upon what we are told by "Burnet in the History of his own times, vol. i. p. 231. "of the condition in which the works were put at the "water-house at Islington, when the fire of London

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happened, cannot but think Evans' making this the "scene of his dream a very unaccountable circum"stance. His telling us that he made nothing of this "dream adds to the credit of his relation."

Ir is observable that in the first edition printed in

VOL. I.

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the

the year 1652. Evans reckons up five, not four young faces in his hand, and he concludes only thus:

All that I apprehend by this vision is, that after the Lord Cromwell we shall have a king again in England.

My thoughts are the same with Mr Warburton's, that the visions of Evans are a curiosity deserving to be known, but not a foundation to build any thing upon.

Evans says, p. 16. of edit. 1652.-Being perfectly awake-u voice-said to me, Go to thy book; whereupon -I suddenly started up, and to the table I went, where my Bible lay open, immediately fastening my eyes upon Ephes. v. 14. being these words, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, und Christ shall give thee light, &c. The same thing he did at other times. Evans, who was illiterate, little thought that he was practising a kind of divination in great request amongst the Pagans, and the ancient Jews and Christians, who had recourse to their Sortes Homerica, Virgiliance, Evangelicae, and Biblice. The same causes produce the same effects, and nothing is more like one enthusiast, mystic, cabbalist, or quietist, than another.

ADDEND A.

P. 115.

Tiresias had an oracle at Orchomenus, which ha ving been famous for some ages, was silent after a plague had raged in that town. It is highly probable, as Bayle observes, that the distemper swept away all the priests, and that none was left to conduct the affair, and to forge responses. Bayle Dict. TIRESIAS,

As

As to the evil dæmons, it is to be supposed that the plague did not destroy them, and that they were as capable of prophesying after as before it.

P. 116.

There are drugs which will make a man delirious, "Father Ange de S. Joseph, a Carmelite and missionary in the Levant, relates that a person worthy "of credit having taken a pill of Persian opium, was "forced, for many hours, to laugh and to talk non"sense, in spite of himself. He saw little phantasms

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pass before his eyes, and goblins who made a very grotesque appearance, and felt several other extra"ordinary effects, without any bad consequence.

"This example shews how certain compositions "can operate upon the imagination and the senses. "The father did not care to say that himself was the "person to whom this happened: but Chardin at"tests it in his Voyages." Beausobre, Hist. de Ma nich. i. p. 186.

END OF BOOK FIRST.

Q 2