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XXII. To Dr. W. Turner.
SIR,
I Return you my most thankfull acknowledgments, for that col∣lection, or farrago of prophecies as you call them, (and that very properly in regard ther is a mixture of good and bad) you pleas'd to send me lately; specially that of Nosterdamus, which I shall be very chary to preserve for you, I could requite you with •…•…ivers predictions more, and of som of the British B•…•…rds, which were •…•…hey translated to English would transform the world to wonder.
They sing of a Red Parlement and white King, of a race of peeple which should be called P•…•…ngruns, of the fall of the Church, and divers other things which glance upon these times. But I am none of those that afford much faith to rambling Prophecies, which, (as was said elsewhere) are like so many od graines sown in the vast field of Time, wherof not one in a thousand comes to grow up again and appear above ground. But that I may correspond with you in som part for the like courtesie, I send you these following prophetic verses of White-Hall, which were made above twenty yeers ago to my knowledg upon a Book call'd Balaams Ass, that consisted of som invectives against King Iames, and the Court in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 quo tu•…•…c; It was compos'd by one Mr Williams a Counsellor of the Temple, but a Roman Catholic, who was hang▪d drawn and quarter'd at Charing Cross for it, and I believe ther be hun∣dreds that have copies of these verses ever since that time about the Town yet living, They were these.
Som seven years since Christ rid to Court, And there he left his Ass, The Courtiers kic'd him out of doores, Because they had no grass, (grace.) The Ass went mourning up and down, And thus I heard him bray,