THE STRANGE and WONDERFUL VISIONS AND PREDICTIONS OF WILLIAM JUNIPER Of Gosfield in Essex, Relating to the Troubles of ENGLAND, As they were by him delivered to Dr. JOHN GAUDEN then at BOCKING. AND NOW LORD BISHOP OF EXON.  
LONDON Printed for J. Davies, and are to be sold ●y Simon Miller at the Star in St. Paul's Churchyard 1662.   

The strange Dreams and Predictions of William Juniper of Gosfield in Essex, relating to the after Troubles of England, as he related them to Dr. Gauden, at Bocking.  
ALthough I am far from that vulgar Credulity, or prophetic Itch, to which the Learned Earl of Northampton, and Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Viscount Verulam, with others observe, the English humour is very subject, but have rather a regardless diffidence of those fanciful toys, as things commonly rising, either from the distempered fancies, or popular artifices of some people, who love to make themselves appear somebody by amusing others; and also having no great reputation at stake, do easily put the veracity of their fore-telling upon the contingency and hazard of such future events, in which they know there can be no great variety or odds; all things, (by an even-lay) falling out either contrary to, or consonant with that tenor, which they venture to foretell, and wherein they can forfeit little of their credit, though they fail; especially if they have the old art of Oracles to wrap up the mysteries of their conceptions in such Generalities, Obscurities, and Ambiguity of words, which like pleited Pictures shall have several aspects or representations, according to the several stations of spectators:  
§. Yet having had opportunity more exactly to know the person, and to receive an immediate account of himself, who died Three or Four years b●fore the happy event verified some of his late predictions, I think it not amiss by way of diversion to give even the graver and more serious world (upon the occasion of my publishing those papers written in the darkness and horror of those times) some account of what I know in those particulars, and with which I was beforehand acquainted in the worst of Times and Things; not that I then much valued them, but yet I did not wholly disregard them; but having made diligent enquiry of them, I then laid them up in my Memory, and for fear of mistake, I presently wrote them down in my Memorials, soon after I had received a punctual information of them, from his own Mouth.  
§. There are two things which give some repute to that that goes under the notion of Prophecy or Prediction; First, The credit of the Person foretelling; Secondly, The accomplishment of what was foretold. The Validity of both these I shall with all Fidelity and Impartiality present to the Readers, having no design herein, but to let them see in a true Glass, what myself have not a little wondered at, since I have lived by the Mercy of God to see those things accomplished, which were then so improbable, when I first heard them; England being then buried in such a Chaos of Confusion, and oppressed with such a Tyrannous and vigilant power, as required a great faith to expect any blessed Reformation of Church and Kingdom; which was not to be relieved indeed by any ordinary power and humane counsel, but only by divine Wisdom and Omnipotent Mercy.  
§. For the credit of the person, William Juniper, ●● Gosfield, I knew him many years, while I lived at Bocking; he dwelling at Gosfield a mile from me, and oft working in his Trade as a Bricklayer, at Squire Wentworths House, the Lord of Bocking my next Neighbour; who would sometimes tell me merrily, that Goodman Juniper had strange Fancies, Dreams and Visions, but withal that he was a very honest man.  
I took little notice of the Man, or his Fancies, supposing him to be but a weak and crazy minded Man, whose simplicity and Honesty were the best Apology for all he said; possibly without fraud or affectation, but mixed with some Fatuity.  
After some years, now full of trouble and terror, when the new Modelled Army had showed the King, the two Houses, their own Associates, and all the world, what Soldiers, and Saints, what Preachers, and Princes they would be, by levelling all things in Church and State, to a Democracy, Stratocracy and Anarchy; about the year (as I remember 1649.) in the spring time Juniper comes, one morning betimes to my House, very importune to speak with me; being told by my servants, that I was not yet risen, he desired he might have access to my Chamber, which I permitted him, (looking upon him as a very harmless poor man) when he was come to my Chamber door, he told me (after the usual civility of a good morrow) that he was that night commanded to come to me, and to signify to me what I should Preach, Holiness to the Lord, Holiness to the Lord, Holiness to the Lord; which he repeated three times with an Emphasis; & so took his leave; hastening though a wet morning to go to Four or Five other neighbour Ministers, and sound the same Alarm to them.  
This sudden and odd access of Juniper, confirmed me in the thoughts, that he was a little crazy; full of Fancies, and more to be pitied, than regarded.  
Afterwards as our English Affairs grew perplexed, deplored and desperate, my Neighbour Mr. Wentworth, would now and then intimate to me what strange confidences Juniper had of a Revolution and Restoration of the Church and Kingdom. How he had foreseen and foretold many Calamities which were come to pass, etc. Yet nothing could so weigh with me as to give Juniper any occasion to think that I had the least consideration or confidence of his Dreams, Visions, and Predictions.  
Yet at last hearing from divers hands many strange expressions of his, referring to the public; I sent for him one day, as desirous alone and at leisure to speak with him, and to see whether the man had such defects or darken of reason, as might wholly impute his Fancies to a crazy brain, or melancholy dotage; or whether there were any thing extraordinary and remarkable in him.  
§. He very Officiously came in a fair Summer's morning to my house, and walking with him alone in the very pleasant walks of my Garden, I told him, that I had heard many strange things relating to our times, which were Fathered on him; I seriously conjured him as in God's sight to tell me the truth of things; I told him he could not be ignorant how great a sin a lie was, especially when being forged in a man's own heart and imagination, he should impute it to God, as a Revelation, Vision, or prediction.  
§. The good man (now above Sixty years old) of a very comely and honest aspect, with great plainness of Speech, gave me thanks for my favour to him, that I would vouchsafe to speak with him, and to admonish him of that duty in truth-speaking, which he owed to God, to his own Soul, and to all Men; professed to me he would not speak any thing but what was represented to him as true; For Sir, said he, I fear God, to whom I must give account of my words, etc.  
Having thus sounded the sincerity of the Good Man, and finding him a true Nathaniel, not only with out any feigning, guilt or affectation, but so serious and conscientious, so knowing in the Scriptures, so judicious in his Religion, so steady in his Judgement, so discreet in his Expressions, and so pious in his Conversation; I had then a further curiosity to see the bottom of his business; and entreated him to tell me, since what time he had perceived any of these impresions on his spirit or fancy, or what he thought of them? how they were upon review presented to him? whether he had them Waking or Sleeping, etc.  
§. The good man with great Veneration of God, and more respect to me than I could deserve; assuring me again of the truth of what he should relate to me, thus began;  
began. Sir, The experiments I have had of these impressions at sundry times upon my mind in the night have been both sleeping and waking, or as it were between both; I suppose they begin in my sleep, and when I am assuredly awake, they do still continue with so quick and clear representations to me, that I cannot well distinguish the difference of them, as to my imagination; either sleeping or waking: They are always so exactly the same in my mind and memory; they make so deep impressions on me, that I never forget them. All particulars are still the same before me, as they first appeared.  
§. I asked him what was the first instance in this kind which made him take notice of such Fancies beyond ordinary Dreams? This he told me was thus; I had been married (Sir) Seven years and had no Child (a blessing desirable to the poor as well as the rich) for which I besought God with more than ordinary earnestness of devotion; soon after I dreamt I had a Son, and saw the Child in such a party coloured Garment: according to the time of life (which was his very words) the Lord gave me a Child by my Wife; who (unwillingly) made its first Coat of a stuff so coloured, as I saw in my Dream; which seemed to me as some special instance, that this Child was a gift of God in answer to my prayers.  
§. After this the Troubles and Terrors of times coming on, to the ruin of our Church and Kingdom, I was (quoth he) much afflicted in my soul to see the sad dissensions raised between the King & the two Houses of Parliament; having learned in the word of God, that the honour of true Christian Religion, consists much in the patience and obedience of Subjects to their lawful Kings. The War growing hot, and little hope of Peace, (my heart being full of Fears) I had this Dream in the Night; Passing by such a Neighbour's House to a Water-Mill (which he named) and having two little Beagles following me, (a sport of foot Hunting, which he had sometimes used in his younger days) there came out two great Dogs, Full and Fat, which fell on my Beagles, and worried them exceedingly; At which I was so moved, that to preserve them, I laid on as hard as I could with this Quarter staff, (which was now in his hand as he used to walk with it) upon the great Curs, but in vain; for they were so smooth and fat, that no stroke would fix on them, to make them feel the smart; upon which I called to the Miller, whose those Dogs were, and asked him, if he were not ashamed to see his great Curs, thus abominably worry my two little Beagles; he with indifferency, answered, it was no wonder; for (saith he) my Dogs are called Will and Power; upon this answer I was the more amazed, because I bethought myself that my two Beagles were named Love and Obedience.  
§ I interrupted him, Goodman Juniper, would you call any Dogs by those Names of Love and Obedience: No (Sir) replied he, God forbid, but in my sleep they were thus presented to me; as so named; the interpretation he easily made, according as he thought the justice of the Causes and Merits of the parties would bear. For he was a most Loyal Subject to his King, and a most Religious Son of the Church of England, a lover of Truth and Peace.  
§. After this, (as he then told me) he had another Dream a good while before the King was destroyed; in this manner, I was walking in such fields (naming them) by the hedge side, over which as I sometimes looked, I saw a great company of people as Soldiers, Horse and Foot in confused motions: while I got on the higher ground to see more exactly what the matter was; I saw men flying this and that way, many fallen and slain on the grounds, and amidst the Corpse, one that lay higher than the rest by himself, with Robes or Garments about him very goodly, as if he were some great personage or Prince, but besmeared with blood; while I beheld with grief this spectacle, I saw a Woman in a rich mantle of purple come riding amain to that dead Corpse, and casting herself upon it she rend her mantle, tore her hair, and fell into a most bitter Lamentation, being forsaken of all: This he told me seemed to him to represent the death of the King and the Church of England, deploring it with such bitterness, as that Tradegy deserved; which soon after came to pass.  
After this (as he proceeded) the Year before King Charles the Seconds coming to Worcester, I had another Dream; My thoughts I saw a goodly young Lion in a large Field; the other Beasts, as Horses, Bulls, Bears, Asses, Wolves, Dogs, Hares, Foxes, Apes, with others, that followed him with such a perulant and scornful importunity of gesture and noise, as that they would be gladly rid of him; and showed they had reverence for him. The Lion marched away without betraying any fear; but yet so, as he seemed not pleased with such rude company: when he was quite gone out of sight, all the beasts gathered together as in a round, and sitting down on their hinder parts, made their several noises as loud as they could, bellowing or roaring, or braying, or howling, or crying out in a kind of hideous triumph and joy, that they had thus driven the Lion out of the Field, and forced him to hide himself from them. The event was so evident an interpretation and completion of this prediction, as nothing could be more easy and obvious to the good man, than to see how his thoughts were adapted to those things, which he lived to see fulfilled.  
§. Soon after this, when an horrible darkness with all manner of licentious confusion and tyrannous oppression, had covered the face of all things in Church and State, (the glory of England in its established Religion and excellent Laws, (which were formerly carried on by the ancient ways of Government Regal and Episcopal,) being now quite departed;) in the same year. He had another Dream or impression on his mind; which he related to me;  
5. My thoughts I was in such a Church attending upon those holy Duties, which I there expected (as indeed he was a very diligent and devout attendant upon those services both on the Lords day and other occasions,) while I was looking when Prayers should begin, and the Minister come, I saw of those, which were gathered together (no very great Congregation,) some prating and talking, some playing and toying, others rude and loud; I was in the Chancel, and being much offended at this rudeness in the House of God, I lift up myself on a Seat to see that there were no men of worship (that was his word) in the Church; when I saw three or four (who seemed Gentlemen of some fashion,) I took the boldness to call to them; Gentlemen, you seem men of worship, it is a shame to have this rudeness and profaneness in the House of God, pray be pleased to command them to leave: They looked carelessly on me, as not regarding what I said, nor concerned to keep better order: I attended till the Minister came, hoping then there would be silence and soberness: After I had long looked; me thoughts a Minister came, as through an obscure and narrow passage of the wall, into a very little Pulpit; when he there appeared, there was no regard had, but the former noise, and rudeness continued; which gave me so great an offence, that again I called aloud as before, for regard to be had to the House & worship of God; But in vain: The Minister could not be heard, nor at last could I see him, a thick mist of darkness, as smoke coming between him and the people, which hid the Father from the eye of the Congregation; this was to my great grief: Afterwards walking softly into the Churchyard as weary of this fruitless attendance, me thoughts, I saw a kind of grass which is called penny grass, all withered in the ground, where it had flourished before in great plenty.  
This Prediction he lived to see fulfiled, in those persecutions which were severely carried on by potent factions against all the constitutions of the Church of England, the insolences daily used in Churches, and in the Mechanic Usurpation of the Pulpit, and in the contempt generally brought on all decent and orderly Religion, by those whose designs were to be advanced only by Schism, Faction, Falsity and Confusion.  
6. To all these he added, at that time, which was Five or Six years at least before the King's happy restoration; this last Vision or Dream, which he thus told me: Me thought (said he) I was in such a large Field, and looking about me, I saw from the East a very goodly Lion coming at a stately pace; on the West I saw all sorts of Beasts coming towards him, with all reverend and lowly behaviour, crouching and fawning. The Lion advanced till he came into the midst of the Field, and the highest place of it, there he sat down on his hinder part with such Majesty, as seemed to keep all the Beasts in awe; they came in very lowly manner toward him, prostrating themselves, and at last they lay on the ground quietly round about him, but at a good distance; The Lion using no revenge upon any of them, sat composed in great state and quiet.  
I said, Goodman Juniper, this seems to import the King's peaceable and happy Return again to his Kingdoms, and that we may live to see all people subject to him. He replied, Sir, I nothing doubt of that; God will certainly Restore his Majesty, and subdue all his enemies; though I may not live to see it, yet your Worship may: Thus he; Then professing, by many words, his sincere and unfeigned truth in relating these things, as they were evidently at several times and years represented to him, and so vehemently impressed on his mind, that he still remembered the circumstances of persons, time and place; this house, that field, and this tree, which seemed to attend his Dream. He assured me, that he did not delight to tell these things, as having any boast in them; nor did he usually do it, but sparingly to some sober friends, as occasion offered and they desired. But he had seen the verifying of some things, and this made him the less doubt that the others would be fulfilled in God's due time, which he heartily prayed; That so the King and Church, or Religion and Laws, Peace and Piety might be again restored to England.  
§. After this Discourse we parted, and I never spoke more with him; for he died within one year or thereabouts. I having this immediate relation from him, and finding him, as of a very sober and settled mind, so very constant, exact and conscientious, in what he said or did: that he was a plain man, of no great fancy, reach or invention; of no vapour, flash or ostentation, but pious, honest and prudent: I presently after his departure from me, set down in writing (as is formerly touched) the sum and main of what he told me; and which I have now (to my best remembrance) imparted to the world; not under the Authentic Authority of any Spirit of Prophecy, but only as offering these things to sober and wise men, who can better judge, of proportions between the Predictions and their accomplishments, neither of which are to be so lightly considered, as not to acknowledge something strange in such a series or succession of appearances so distinctly represented; in such very apt Figures, or ingenious Emblems, and these followed with such suitable Events; nor was either the humour of the man to be suspected, being so plain Hearted and Religious, nor yet his condition to be despised, being a very good Christian, living comfortably by his calling as one that feared God with all his heart; a man of a strict and holy Life, without any tincture of Faction or Schism, a Lover of Truth, Holiness, Order and Peace. I confess I so much valued his words, after I had thus personally confirred with him, that I have oft told them to others long before the dawning of his Majesty's return: so I did believe and do, that there might be something of a Diviner stroke or Beam sometime upon the good man's devout soul, whose heart and ways were so upright before God, and so inoffensive before men.  
§. 'Tis true, I have heard and read as in Neptredane and others, many things relating to the former Tragedies of our times, as portends presages or Predictions, and some of them from persons of good credit, which forbids me to despise them wholly, though I do not much dote upon them.  
§. I know all Histories ancient and late, Divine, and Humane, Ecclesiastical and Civil are full of such like series of Divinations and Dreams, Previsions and Predictions, as in those which Sir Henry Wotton 's Father had with many others, to which the private and public events have oft corresponded; from what genius or temper of spirit, of body, or mind they arise; whether from a presaging power, native in the rational soul, which may sometimes if rightly disposed and cleared as it were through little crannies or crevices, look forward, and foresee things to come beyond its senses: or whether there be such a (spiritus mundi) general correspondency or conspiring of that one harmonious spirit, which is in all things under the Sun, that by some consent, or secret sympathies, it so affects some men's minds and fancies, who are tuned and fitted for such special impressions, that they have some sense of things to come, while yet their nearer causes are wrapped up and undisclosed: Or lastly, whether the wise and blessed God may not be pleased sometime to grant some such special indulgence to some men, as to St. Paul in a dark night and dismal storm, especially in cases where providential Riddles seem so contradictory to the rules of right reason and justice, to Morality and Religion, where the scandal of men's actions, pretending to godliness, is exceeding great; where their hypocrisies are most impudent, cruel and oppressive (as in Athavasius his speech of Julian the Apostate, Nubecula cito transibit, that he was but a cloud which should soon vanish.) Lastly, where even such as fear God, are prone to be grieved and perplexed at the long prosperity of wicked men; (who speaking lies in hypocrisy, seek to make God the Patron and Protector of their sins,) I will not determine any thing: only this I am confident of; That there was nothing of falsity, vanity, affectation, or ostentation in this Good man: Nor were the impressions upon his fancy transient and volatile, as is usual in Dreams, which soon lose themselves, and vanish without any retriving, but these were still pregnant and constant, the same in their quick representation, not impertinent, as to the aspect of our Affairs, nor yet extravagant, or unapt as to the Schemes or Emblems, and appearance of them; which made me think them not wholly unworthy my notice of them, nor of my communicating them upon this occasion to others; who may if they are wise, make a good use of them; if they are vain & foolish people, these will not much add to or detract from that folly, which is most predominant in them. This is certain, there is no effect but hath its cause, though nothing be more uncertain than to assign the Genuine and proper causes of things, especially such as are under no regular method and course of elementary nature; but fall under that infinite variety, which befalls the soul of man in its motions Sensible, Fancyfull, Rational and Religious; Among which none have more in all Ages amused the world, than those which have been in the way of Dreams, concerning which who so desires to be satisfied, shall do well to read those Author's Ancient and Modern, who have made the best calculations of them. This is sure, nothing is less to be seriously regarded by wise men, than Dreams, which are as pebbles on the Sea shore, of various forms and colours, none like another; yet among these sometimes there may be found one or two that are very splendid and precious stones, no way to be undervalved or lightly cast away: and such it may be these were, and will by others as well as myself, be esteemed.  
FINIS.   

Books newly Printed and Sold at the Star in St. Paul's Church yard.  
1. THe Reconciler of the Bible enlarged wherein above 3000 seeming Contradictions throughout the Old and New Testament are fully and plainly Reconciled; Useful for all those that desire to understand the Sacred Scriptures aright unto Salvation: in Folio.  
2. A New Book of Loyal English Martyrs and Confessors, who have endured the Pains and Terrors of Death for the Maintenance of the Just and Legal Government of these Kingdoms both in Church and State.  
FINIS.