Brightman's PREDICTIONS AND prophecies: written 46. years since;. Concerning the three Churches of Germany, England and Scotland. foretelling the misery of Germany, the fall of the pride of Bishops in England by the assistance of the Scottish Kirk. All which should happen (as he foretold) between the years of 36. and 41. &c.  
Printed in the year 1641.   

Predictions and prophecies of these times: written forty six years since, &c.  
DIvers and sundry Predictions and prophecies have been made by our ancient Prophets, Bards, and fatidicall Vaticinators, which in their due times have futurely, both punctually and exactly come to pass, as of the Sibyls (so often and frequently alleged by the Fathers) who many years before predicted of the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour. The like did Merlin Ambrosins, that famous Cambrian Prophet, who flourished in the time of Vortiger, King of Britain, whose sooth-says (for so they called them in old time) have proved true even to these latter days, which is made plenally apparent in a Book not long since published by the Title of Merlin's life and prophecies, which whosoever shall read may be amply satisfied what prevalence his prenotions had, all of them in the process of time, being seasonably and maturely accomplished.  
But to leave others, and insist only upon Mr. Brightman's stupendious Revelations, a zealous Divine, who in his learned Sermons preached in the later end of Queen Elizabeth's days (of most blessed memory) about the three and four and fortieth year of her reign; which was immediately before the coming in of K. James, father to our royal sovereign K. Charles, (of like sacred memory with the former) His Predictions were out of the 3. and 4. Chapters of the Revelations: in which there is mention made of 7. Epistles sent to the 7. Churches of Asia, which were Types of 7. other succeeding Churches to come. The 7. Asian Churches as you shall find there mentioned, were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea; in three of which he figured the state at that time, and that should hereafter be of the three Churches of Germany, of Scotland, and of England, making the Church of Germany a counterpane of Sardis, the Church of Scotland a type of Philadelphia, the Church of England represented in Laodicea.  
The Church of Germany had its initiation or beginning in Martin Luther of Wittenburg a town in Saxony; in the year of grace 1517. Now as Mr. Brightman vatically observeth, the Church of Thyatira was much blamed for suffering the woman Jezabel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach & deceive Christ's servants, and commit fornication, by which is meant idolatry, &c. But this the Church of Sardis reformed: notwithstanding which, she still retained many errors, as Consubstantiation of the Lord's Supper, and about freewill, justification, good works, &c. by which he foreseeing the misery since come upon them, admonished the Germans to consider of it before hand, and to prevent these impending judgements by reformation and timely repentance, grounding his Conjectures upon the words of the Text, which are these: But if thou wilt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief: that is, suddenly and unexpected: now these judgements are thus fatidically delivered. 

His prediction of the Church of Germany.  
Like to a whirlwind shall destruction come,  
Sword, fire, and famine, wasting all and some,  
Cities be turned to towns, and towns converted  
To villages, forsaken, and deserted.  
The people of all comfort quite bereft,  
And scarce one hundred of a thousand left.  
Fire with the sword shall strive for sovereign power,  
And when they spare, the plague and pest devour:  
And such as their stern fury shall evade,  
A more sad prey be unto famine made.  
Forced shall they be to eat of snails and Frogs,  
The long dead carcases of Rats and Dogs.  
Mothers their babes shall without mercy kill,  
And cook their limbs, their starved guts to fill:  
(The like have brothers to their sisters done)  
Sights that at noonday have eclipsed the Sun:  
And that which all belief seems to exceed,  
Dig corpses from their graves, and thereon feed.  
Nor cease the judgements thus, (as if they had  
Their period here: to death they tortures add;  
Exquisite tortures, (fitting to deplore)  
Being a Nation never slaved before:  
For what is it the foe will not devise,  
To force them tell where all their treasure lies,  
To pierce and cut with bodkins and with knives  
Their skin and flesh, endangering so their lives.  
Draw strings and wires through all their brawny parts,  
Of thighs and arms, some stabbing to the hearts:  
Others into hot Ovens they shall thrust,  
And stop them up till they be dried to dust.  
By lingering fires roast some on wooden spits,  
Basted with Lard: what is't their savage wits  
Cannot devise? here men new strangled lie,  
There others stifled with wet stubble die:  
Others being gauged, they down their throats will pour,  
All puddle trash, with urine stale and sour,  
Till their guts break, their miseries transcend;  
Of which for many years shall be no end &c.   Of all which, and how punctually they have happened, whosoever would be fully satisfied, I refer them (the better to confirm their truth) to divers letters sent out of Germany, bewailing their sad and lamentable estate, and are to be read in print, one sent from Swebrugden, the 14. of November, 1636. by the Ministers of Germany to the Dutch Church in London: another written by a worthy Minister of Messenbeim, upon the edge of the lower Palatinate, the first of February, 1637. And a third also sent from Worms, and written by a godly Minister the tenth of Febr. in the same year: all which you may find in a book called the Lamentations of Germany, To which may be added (namely to the premises) what happened to a learned and a godly Preacher of especial note and remark, at the taking in of Magdenburg, who was dragged from the Church unto his own house, where having seen his wife and daughters ravished before his face, and his young infants torn from their mother's arms, and pitched upon the tops of Pikes: when his eyes were bloodshot with these savage and brutish objects, they led him bound to the marketplace, and having tied him to a stake, peeled all his books about him, of which setting fire, they burned them with his body to ashes. God Almighty in great mercy, avert the like judgements from us.  
As concerning the Church of Scotland, in which he likewise includeth the two Churches of Geneva and Holland, which (he saith) were truly figured in the Asian Philadelphia: of them he saith, that in no place of Christendom, The Doctrine of Christ soundeth more purely, the worship of God is exercised more incorruptly: nor the diligence of Pastors and Teachers is performed more faithfully &c. To which he also addeth, that the Philadelphians (meaning the Churches of Scotland, Geneva, and Holland) shall continue till the appearance of the new Jerusalem, and that they shall be joined with it in covenant and so●ietie, proceeding with this encouragement, Nourish and cherish thy hopes with these things, O holy Philadelphia, and be not perplexed, whatsoever the world vainly prates of thee, thou art little and lowly, God shall exalt thee, go forward constantly, &c. Which words, with many more to that effect, were delivered by him both in word and writing, more than 40. years ago. But now to come to a view how nearly he reflected upon their estate, and what hath happened unto them of late in these times, fresh in our own notion and knowledge.  

His prediction of the Church of Scotland,  
The victory the Philadelphians had  
Over the Jews (in Christ) to make them glad,  
Is but a figure in the days to come,  
Of the great triumph you shall have o'er Rome,  
And their prelatic pomp: the time was when  
You warred against it but with ink and pen,  
(And then prevailed) but after shall do more,  
Chase with the sword that Babylonish whore,  
Like Jehu new anointed to the crown,  
With furious march you shall at length pull down  
Idolatrous Ahab's issue, and then call  
To one assembly all the Priests of Baal,  
There slay them to one man: story shall tell  
How you that painted Harlot Jezabel  
Shall from the window, where she struts in state,  
Down headlong to the earth precipitate;  
Whose brains dashed out; and whilst her limbs yet bleed;  
Upon her flesh the hungry dogs shall feed.  
Geneva standing on a ticklish ground,  
As by the foreign foe encompassed round;  
For many years attempted, but in vain,  
By the three potent powers, Rome, France, and Spain,  
Shall flourish still: the Hollander oppressed  
By Spanish tyrants, shall still keep her crest  
Level with theirs, by equal strength on land;  
But on the Seas shall have that prime command,  
That when their Fleets encounter, though 'gainst odds,  
As if descended from the Marine gods,  
Manger the pride of their Hesperian braves,  
The briny billows shall be made their graves.  
And the Scotch Church, that little seems and low,  
Shall be in th' end their Bishop's overthrow:  
By whose example others shall be drawn  
To question mitres, Copes, and sleeves of lawn.  
Then these with others, shall combine in on●,  
To put the archpriest from his papal throne,   
Much more is spoken by Mr. Brightman to the like purpose, which into these few words are contracted, speaking of those Churches before named, as had he lived in these our days, and had seen and known all the contingents late happened: of which, because they are so frequent, and familiar in every man's notion, I purpose no longer to insist, but proceed to the last.  
In Laodicea (saith he) is figured the Church of England, (called Reformed) in which he presageth the state of the prelacy, and Clergy of England, and how it now stands; and lest he should be taxed of any spleen or malice conceived against them in regard of sundry troubles and tribulations which he in those times suffered by them: therefore he maketh this apology in the Epistle to his work. God is my witness, that I am not grieved through envy at the wealth or honours of any of them, being sufficiently contented with that small and competent estate which God hath allotted me: neither thought I ever any thing more foolish than for any man to please himself by distasting others. But when I perceived that these seven Cities were propounded for a type of all the Churches amongst the Gentiles: and when I did moreover see so clearly both the order, the time, and the marvellous agreeing of all things together, I durst not perfidiously bury the truth in silence; for God forbid that I should willingly distain that Church with the least aspersion or infamy, which by the mercy of God hath brought me forth, and hath brought me up, and doth now sustain me; yet I thought it my duty rather to cast myself upon any trouble whatsoever, than to betray the salvation of that Church, whose estate ought to be of more account with every one of us than our own. For he that gathereth the tears of his children into his bottle doth know right well that I have not with dry eyes taken a survey of Laodicea.  
Thus it appears by his own ingenious confession, that these enthusiasms & raptures which proceeded from him, were mere inspirations, and no vain and idle fancies and phantasms, the fruit of a distracted brain: of which no better testimony can be given, than the event, which in the subsequence will be more apparent; for it thus followeth.  

His prediction of the Church of England,  
The counterpane of Laodicea stands,  
(As third in rank) Ith' Church of England's hands;  
And by the angel of the Church is meant  
The Pastor of the same, or precedent,  
Of whom'tis said, (to her no little blot)  
I know thy works, th' art neither cold nor hot.  
What art thou then? some medley stuff composed  
Of hodge podge temper, (fit to be disclosed)  
Thou art not cold, thy doctrine's sound and pure;  
Such, as a fiery trial can endure.  
Nor art thou hot: thy zeal is of no price,  
Losing its heat, it falls as cold as Ice.  
How else could a reformed Church admit  
Of popish superstitions mixed with it?  
They thy infatuated senses charm,  
To be nor one, nor other, but lukewarm:  
'Tis equal with thee to be Romish all,  
Or one of those which we reformed call:  
If on this weak point thou thy judgement stay,  
To know God's truth, and serve him the wrong way,  
If Baal be God, before his fires appear:  
If God be God, then follow him in fear:  
He's justly taxed of spiritual sloth  
Who is a Ne●ter, and shall halt 'tween both.  
We of thee Laodicea further find,  
The Text saith, than art naked, poor, and blind:  
Not poor in spirit, that were a blessed thing;  
For some have dared to write, I and my King:  
Yet beggars too, but not of pence, but pounds,  
And besides clergy Tithes of temporal grounds.  
Dark art thou in thy Canons long since past,  
As in th●se future, which shall come on fast:  
Which throughly sifted, and in every part,  
It will appear to all, how blind thou act.  
These with thy Innovations, cruel dooms,  
And popish trinkats, all which once were Rome's,  
Uncover shall thy skirts, and as I guess,  
Before the nations show thy nakedness,  
Which shall a double Sanedrin invite,  
To clip thy wings, or else to plume thee quite, &c.   
Thus you have heard the whose sum of what was amply delivered by him, briefly epitomised, and I hope so plainly, that there needeth no further comment upon it: which I entreat the Read●●●●y be perused considerately and carefully: For all predictions of this na●●re ought to be three times read, before once determinately censured.  
FINIS.