lilies Lamentations, OR, Englands feigned PROPHET DISCOVERED: Being a brief Narration of the several proceedings of our Famous Country-man Mr. William lily the Star-gazer.  
Containing Several passages since the beginning of these Times of REFORMATION; Together with many other Tricks of Art, and Magical Quillits, used by our aforesaid supposed Prophet.  
 woodcut of anthropomorphized owl writing at a desk  
LONDON, Printed for R. eels.   

Lil-lies Lamentaitons, OR, ENGLANDS feigned Prophet DISCOVERED.  
WEll lily, well; I  told thee of this before, hast thou not now brought thy hogs to a fair Market; You, Mr. Stargazer, It is you that I speak to, you that were always so ready to impeach honest Clergy-men, and others that had a great deal more honesty, then ever thou hadst either Wit or Manners, and behold thou art now upon the stage thyself, not onely likely to become the the spectacle of thy own country, but the reproach of the the whole World, and in time, thou mayst be made an Example to all such deluding Sorcerers as thou art; for most commonly, the last Act pays for all.  
A wise man would have thought that thou hadst proved thyself Fool enough about the last Great eclipse of March last, otherwise called Black-Munday, and not to have gone on still in ignorance; O lump of impudence, to delude the people, and in the end to deceive thy own soul.  
Where was now thy Familiar? or in plain terms, where was the Devil? that hath for a long time been so attendant at thy elbow to smooth thee up in ignorance, where I say was he? that thou couldst have no notice given of this disaster, Will? But what shall I say? there is an old Proverb far more credible then any of thy Predictions, which saith, he that is born to be hanged shall nere be drowned, and it was verified by certain Gentlemen, that you gave it out, That you should be hanged, and for my part I hearty wish that God may keep thee from all better fortunes, and then happily that may be the end of all: I must confess there is one passage in the beginning of thy New almanac very observable, viz. That thou art once more come to the public View, and for any thing that I know, it may be thy last, if the Devil do not miss of his due.  
Therefore consider with thyself, and think what became of thy Predecessors, viz. Doctor Faustus, Friar Bacon, Bunge, Vandermast, the Witch of Endor, Doctor Lamb, and divers others, who of late dayes have been made public Examples, and if thou findest that any of these did ever get any thing by it, but an expectation of woe and misery, and the Devil to boot, then go on, otherwise repent and be hanged, and now thou art so happily fallen into the hands of those that I hope will teach thee better manners, call upon thy great God ptolemy, Tycho brach, Regiomontanus, Origanus, and the devil and all, and see if they can deliver thee out of the hands of the mighty; No, no, Mr. Gripe-Conscience, so sure as thy villainy shall be discovered, so sure shall not sin go unpunished.  
About February next this Good-man Figure-flinger tells us, that Angels of Gold please the Saints of the Earth; I must confess such Saints as he make Gods of such Angels, but it is very like before that time a Hempen string may become him better.  
And about March he saith the Lawyer will begin to get ground; A cunning Knave needs no broker; for had he not feared the Lawyers joining with the Priest against himself, he would haue served him with the sauce he did last year.  
It would make an honest man laugh to see how this fool hath made an ass of himself since these times of REFORMATION, only to please the Rich, deceive the ignorant, & befool himself; One thing indeed he was very excellent at, to bewitch a mans money out of his pocket.  
A certain grazier, for a couple of Cowes that were strayed from the place where he had disposed of them, was advised by an intimate Friend of his, to go to Mr. lily( a man better known by his Name then his honesty) to see if he could hear of his Cowes, and coming to this Figer-Casters House( where he was willingly entertained, more for his money then any thing else) propounded his Question; so Mr. lily, having an old-fashiond Figure before him, after a little perusal thereof, shaking his Cockscombe three or four times, at last  told the grazier, That his Cawes were fallen into the hands of a Butcher, and moreover ( quoth lily) thou shalt see them hang up in Butchers shops, if thou canst but know them; Yet nevertheless the honest grazier, at his coming home, found his Cowes in his Neighbours yard; O hellish delusion, an unheard of way, to cheat men of their money.  
Shortly after, Mr. lily riding out of town to Recreate himself at his covetous, did meet with an Old countryman by a forest side, and demanding of the countryman how far it was to the next town? The countryman  told him, That it was but a very little way, nevertheless, quoth he, if you make not the more hast, you may chance to be wet to the skin, before you come there; for there is a shower of Rain a coming; How dost thou know that quoth lily; Ho, quoth the old man, do you not see yonder Dun Cow; Yes, quoth lily; Well, said the old man, when she scratcheth her right ear with her left foot, then be sure it will rain, which thing hath made Mr. lily so much out of conceit with his own judgement for weather, that he hath turned it all over to his brother Booker.  
Mr. lily walking over Covent-Garden one night late, did meet with a light-skirted, silver-lac'd Gentlewoman who demanded of him, if he would drink a pint of wine, and he as willing to accept, as she was to proffer, they went lovingly to the Garter Tavern in Long-Acre, where after the Figure-Monger had made himself known, shee presently desired him to erect a Figure, to see who should pay for that pint of Wine, so he being busy in the midst of his Calculations, she was employed at the bottom of his pockets, and in the conclusion left him to pass judgement by himself; so he found the woman was a pickpocket Whore, and he must pay for the pint of Wine himself.  
So fearing lest his Art should fall, through so many just aspersions, he collected a new Book out of I do not know how many old fashioned Authors, entitled, An Introduction to astrology, where a man may not onely learn to cheat others, but may also deceive himself of his own soul.  
Well but now Mr. Scheam-setter must be called to an account for his Knavery; nay, he must prove the lawfulness of his Art; look to it now Will, and give the Devil notice to procure as much assistance as possible may be, for if this work goes forward, a Witch in England will be worth all Sion-Colledge, and K. Henry the sevenths chapel to boot.  
Nay, there is already chosen seven honest hearted Orthodox Divines, men of renown, to sift, search, and find out the illegality of his Devillsh mistrie, and according as they find it, so they are to deal with it; if unlawful, then a fire by the common Hangman is to be made, and all his Books to be burnt; I wish as speedy an end to all his dishonesty.  
A West-Country yeoman coming up to the term, and going to Westminster-Hall with an Apparition of Angells, thinking thereby to unloose the dumb tongue of his unbrib'd Lawyer; but by the way gaping at the New Exchange on the fine Gew-gaws there, a Cut-purse finding his opporty, eased him of his Purse, and twenty Nobles in ready money, which the poor countryman never missed till he came to Westminster, where feeling for his purse, he found nothing but the strings, which he had fastened to the Wastband of his Breeches, which made the poor Country-man in such a dismal Agony for his Purse, that he run back again like a Mad-man, but all in vain, he repaired to a country man of his in Fleet-street, who hearing his pitiful complaint, lent him forty Shillings, and and advised him early the next morning to go to Mr. lily, and give him Five Shillings to tell him who had his Purse, which the Counttey-man willingly consented unto, and got one to go with him to Mr. lilies House near the May-pole in the Strand, where they were no sooner come to the Door, but they found the same surreverence all to Be— where they had no sooner knocked, but down comes that profound Ass-strologer Mr. lily, who opening the door, and seeing it in that shitten case, began to execrate and curse those beastly Knaves that did it; vowing, If he did but know who did him that nasty trick, he would make them Examples to all such rogues so long as they lived; Nay quoth the countryman, if he cannot tell who beshit his door, he can as well be hanged as tell me who had my Purse, and so went his way.  
Yet nevertheless, thus much for thy comfort, if in Case, the honest Priest do find thee a Wizzad, a Witch, a Sorcerer or Sooth-sayer, as I make no great question but he will, and do burn all thy books, and confiscate all thy Estate, it is no matter, thou art a happy man if thou escapst with thy life, for then thou mayest go into another country where thou art not known, and there turn Fortuneteller,— for now— 

Great Jove with Mars doth now combine,  
Luna beholds them with a friendly trine,  
subtle Mercury must be now Combust,  
No more deceit, for lily down thou must,   

Oh Witch of Endor, wee'l no more  
Your Altar, nor your shrine adore:  
For pack thou must with grief and woe,  
And so must William lily too.    
It is very observable, That he being brought before the Committee, he could not answer them in latin, but hummd, hawd, spit, or had much ado to speak Reason or sense; which makes many wise men believe, that his Familiar( now he is in hold) is departed from him, as from all other Witches.  
FINIS.