The famous prophesie of the white king and the dead man explain'd to the present times ... By Isaac Bickerstaffe, esq

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- [titlepage]

THE Famous Prophesie OF THE White King and the Dead Man, &c.

IT will be necessary to inform the Reader that this Prophesie was writ seven hundred Years ago in Latin, and found about a hundred Years since at the pulling down of an old Monastry: All •…e parts of this Prophesie are already come to pass •…t this last, which you will find by the sequel is •…w at hand: The first thing that was foretold by •… was the Union of the two Crowns under one Mo •…rch, after the Death of the Maiden Queen; the ext thing was the Troubles of England, and the •…eath of King Charles the Martyr; the third thing •…as the Exile; and the fourth the Restauration of •…ing Charles the Second; after that, this Prophesie •…mes to the late Revolution and describes it; by •… Eagle coming out of the East, landing in the South, nd coming to the West, where, at an old Castle that ands by the River side that washes the Walls of Briain's Metropolis, the Great and Mighty Men of the •…ingdom shall come to receive him, and offer him their •…ervice to catch the Old Lyon's Whelp; the last Pro •…hesie that shall come to pass is just succeeding the time •…at England and Scotland shall lose their former Names, and be swallow'd up in that of Great Britai•… and then shall be explain'd this of the White King a•… the Dead Man.

The White King, and his Character. He is th•… great Red Dragon who is gorg'd and ready to burst wit the Blood of all Nations: He is known by the mightiness of his Power, and the absoluteness of his Dominion The best of his Subjects are the greatest of his Slaves and his most applauded Acts of Devotion consist in th Multitude of Victims be has Sacrificed to the false God that he Worshippeth. His Honour is lodged in the numberless Number of his Troops: His Religion in th Breast of his Confessor; and his Riches in the Purs•… of his Subjects; which, like the Unjust Steward, h useth at his own Will and Pleasure.

This White King you may plainly see by th Description is meant for the French King, who ha been so long foretold to be a Tyrant over his People and a Scourge to the Neighbouring Nations, as th Prophets of old deliver'd in dark Misteries thei Prophesies concerning the coming of Cyrus, the down-fall of the Persian Monarchy under Darius; and th•… rise of the Western under Alexander, and afterwards that of the Caesars. Can any thing point plainer at him than to say He is gorg'd with the Blood of all Nations, when there is scarce one in Europe whom the French King has not imbrued his Hands in their Blood? The next is as plain, which points at Power, and the Arbitrariness of his Government▪ and wherein he has made the best of his Subjects▪ which are the Protestants, without whose assistance he had scarce been able to have kept his Crown, now Slaves by sending several to the Gallies, and forcing others to quit his Dominions. The rest of the Prophesie is as true in every particular, and therefore needless to repeat.

The Time when the White King shall raise the Dead Man, and the Signs of his Coming. The Time when this shall come to pass shall be the time after England and Scotland shall lose the Distinction of their former Names, and be swallow'd up in their Original Name of Great Britain. And the Sign that shall be given shall be that when False Prophets arise, and shall pretend to raise the Dead Man; but this shall not be the Dead Man which the White King shall raise; for he is not a Dead Man, but to the Hopes and Expectations of the People he is Dead only, but shall rise again.

This is directly hit at the Union of the Two Kingdoms, and cannot be interpreted to mean any •…ther thing, but what the Dead Man is wou'd look •… little doubtful, but the next Paragraph explains it, which if it did not the present times wou'd show that it has brought him to Life which every Body thought was Dead, to us at least; but that •…hich is very particular, and wonderfully remarkable in deed, is the Sign given us of those times that is when False Prophets shall arise and pretend to aise the Dead Man, before ever the other Dead Man hat was meant, was ever thought to make such a Resurrection. This is worth a serious Reflection to hink that just at a time when these False Prophets pretend to raise Emes, one of their pretended Probets, which is their Dead Man, the White King, in he Prophesie, is pretending to raise to us, the People of the Union, another Dead Man, contrary to all our Thoughts, our Apprehensions, or Expectations, and who this Dead Man is, the next Paragraph of the Prophesie shows.

And the Dead Man is the Lyon's Whelp, which the Eagle had drove away from the Old Lyon before.

This part of the Prophesie is explain'd by that which foretold the Revolution by the coming of an Eagle out of the East, which was the then Prince of Orange, afterwards our Glorious Restorer King William, who came to catch the Old Lyon's Whelp, which may be plainly understood of the then Pretended Prince of Wales, who is afterwards all along call'd the Dead Man, which very emphatically shows us, He is a Person Dead and lost to all Reasonable Expectation. But this is the Dead Man which the Eagle had drove away from the Old Lyon, as this Pretender was driven from K. James, before he Abdicated the Crown of England, and therefore he is a Dead Man indeed that is excluded all hopes of Reigning, by the Crown of Great Britain's being Settled on the House of Hannover, and in a Protestant Succession for ever, so that he is actually Dead to the Law. Therefore we shall proceed to examine in the next place.

The Business that the Dead Man is sent about by the White King. And the White King having War with all the Nations round about him, setting up one King, and pulling down another, at last raises up the Dead Man, which was the Old Lyon's Whelp, and furnishes him with Wooden Horses to carry him to his Native Country, there to assault it, and destroy the People for the hardness of their Hearts, and their Infidelity in not beliening that the Dead Man shou'd come again, whom they spued out from amongst them long before. This is the design the Dead Man is sent about •…y the White King; but his Governour has disappoin •…d all his Projects.

This Paragraph needs but little explaining at his time of Day, when we find the White King▪ is •…etting up the Dead Man against us, and sending •…im to execute his own Designs. The Wooden Hor •…s he is preparing for him to Visit the Land of his Nativity are the White King's Shipping, wherewith he threatens to Invade us, and Force the Subjects of a Free State, and who Live under the happiest Government in the World, to bow their Necks down to a Foreign Yoke of Slavery, under Pretence of a Person and Title that is absolutely Dead to us, and all the World beside this White King, this Scourge of the Nations, which, as the Prophesie says, Is for setting up one King, and pulling down another. But •…n the last place this Dead Man shall bring a Governour along with him; now who this Governour is will be worth while to enquire, because this Governour shall break the Neck of all his Designs in a manner that shall be acceptable to all the World, as the Prophesie further illustrates when it comes to the Destruction of the White King and the Dead Man. And this Governour seems to be directly level'd at the Duke of Berwick, who shall discover all the Underhand Projects of the White King, to make a Property of the Dead Man, and so shall deliver up the Dead Man, that he may be no more a Disturber of the People, or a Handle for the White King to work all his dark Designs withal.

And the Dead Man's Governour shall bring over his Charge, and then the White King shall leave the Dead Man to the Charge of his Governour, and there sha•… Consternation, and Confusion, and Amazement; but the B•… of the People shall not be spilt, nor shall Desolation or Des▪ction come near their Houses; for the Governour of the D Man shall deliver up his Charge to the Hands of them that quire it of him, and he shall be Crown'd with Honour for Wonderfulness of that Work; and the signs of it coming to p•… shall be when the false Prophe•…s that pretended to raise up th•… Dead Man shall be confounded and dispersed Abroad, so t•… their Names shall be no more heard of in our Str•…ets: And th•… the White King shall be destroy'd from off the face of the Eart•… the Dead Man shall never Rise again, bu•… Peace shall be Est•…▪blish'd for evermore.

The Reader may observe that this Paragraph brings the Prophesie down to a general Peace, if not to the last Day, whic•… none knows how near its approach may be: However we fin•… by this plain•…y that the Dead Man and his Project shall com•… to nothing, but he be made a Prey and Sacrifice to the Ambition and Tyranny of the White King, who shall be disappointe•… in the Trust of this Great Governour whoever he shall be; fo•… he seems resolved by the Prophesie to prevent the Effusion o•… Blood, by readily delivering up his Charge, which must immediately put an End to all the White King's Designs, nay the Prophesie seems to Point plainly at his own Destruction at Home, while he is so busied in forming Foreign Projects, and that the Time is very shortly at hand, for it says the sign of its coming to p•…ss shall be soon after this A•…tempt in May next of pretending to rai•…e Emes, the false Prophets Dead Man; and when we find them disappointed in their Designs, as we have no reason to doubt but they will, then may we expect the fulfilling of these things; That all Foreign Attempts against us will be en•…irely baffled; the White King, our Great Enemy, utterly destroy'd; the Dead Man in the Prophesie shall never rise again, that is, we shall be freed from all Fears or Disturbances from him, and then there shall be Peace to the End of the World.

FINIS.

THE FAMOUS PROPHESIE OF THE White King and the Dead Man Explain'd To the Present TIMES.

CONTAINING

The Introduction.

I. The White King's Character and Description.

I. The Time when the White King shall raise the Dead Man, and the Signs of his Coming.

•… That the Dead Man is the Lyon's Whelp which the Eagle had drove away from the Old Lyon before.

•… The Business that the Dead Man is sent about by the White King.

I. The Dead Man's Governor, and what he does with his Charge.

II. The Signs when the Dead Man and the White King shall be Destroy'd, after which Peace shall be Establish'd for ever more.

By ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE, Esq

LONDON Printed for J. Morphew, near Stationers-Hall.

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The famous prophesie of the white king and the dead man explain'd to the present times ... By Isaac Bickerstaffe, esq

Bickerstaff, Isaac.

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http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/5288

ID [isbn10]

1106022874

ID [isbn13]

9781106022875

ID [TCP]

K112190.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3312220943

ID [ECLL]

0388500700

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— The famous prophesie of the white king and the dead man explain'd to the present times ... By Isaac Bickerstaffe, esq, Bickerstaff, Isaac.. 8p. ; 8⁰. London :: printed for J. Morphew,. [1710?]. [Isaac Bickerstaff is a pseudonym.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT144059.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

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