A Great VVonder in Heaven
showing the later apparitions and prodigious noises
of war and battle
seen at Edge Hill near Keinton
in Northamptonshire
Certified under the hands of William Wood esquire
and Justic of the Peace in the said county
Samuel Marshall
preacher of God's word in Keinton
and other persons of quality
London
Printed for Tho. Jackson
Jan. 23. anno domini 1642
That there has been and ever will be laurae spectra and suchlike apparitions, namely ghosts and goblins, has been the opinion of all the most famousest divines of the Primitive Church, and is - though oppugned by some - the received doctrine of divers learned men at this day, their opinion being indeed ratified and confirmed by divers texts of Scripture, as the devils possessing the swine and the men possessed with devils in the Acts of the Apostles, that came out of them and beat the exorcists. By which, it is evidently confirmed that those legions of erring angels that fell with their master Lucifer are not all confined to the locale Hell, but live scattered here and there, dispersed in the empty regions of the air as think as motes in the Sun, and these are those things which our too superstitious ancestors called elves and goblins, furies and the like, such as were those who appeared to Macbeth, the after King of Scotland, and foretold him of his fortunes both in life and death.
It is evident besides that the Devil can condense the air into any shape he pleases, as he is a subtle spirit, thin and open, and rank himself into any form or likeness, as St Augustine, Prudentius, Hieronimus Cyril, St Basil the Great, and none better than our late sovereign King James of ever-living memory in his threatise De Demonologia has sufficiently proved. But to omit circumstance and preamble, no man that thinks he has a soul but will verily and confidently believe that there are devils, and so consequently such devils as appear either in premonstrance of God's judgements, or as fatal ambassadors to declare the message of mortality and destruction to offending nations, and have in Germany and other places afflicted afterwards with the horror of civil and foreign wars notoriously manifested.
But to our purpose. Edge Hill in the very confines of Warwickshire, near unto Keiton in Northamptonshire, a place as appears by the sequel destined for civil wars and battles, as where King John fought a battle with his barons, and who in the defence of the kingdom's laws and liberty was fought a bloody conflict between his Majesty's and the Parliament's forces, who under the conduct of his Excellence th Earl of Essex pbtained there a glorious victory over the Cavaliers at this Edge Hill.
In the very place where the vattle was stricken have since and doth appear strange and portentious apparitions of two jarring and contrary armies, as I shall in order deliver.
It being certified by the men of most credit in those parts, as William Wood esquire, Samuel Marshall minister, and others on Saturday which was in Christmas time, as if the Saviour of the world, who died to redeem mankind, had been angry that so much Christian blood was there spilt, and so had permitted these infernal armies to appear where the corporeal armies had shed so much blood, between twelve and one of the clock in the morning was heard by some shepherds and other countrymen and travellers first the sound of drums afar off, and the noise of soldiers, as it were giving out their last groans, at which they were much amazed, and amazed stood still, til it seemed by the nearness of the noise to approach them, at which too much affrighted, they sought to withdraw as fast as possibly they could.
But then on the sudden, whilest they were in these cogitations, appeared in the air the same incorporeal soldiers that made those clamours, and immediately with ensigns displayed, drums beating, muskets going off, cannons discharged, horses neighing which also to these men were visible, and alarum or entrance of this game of death was struck up, one army which gave the first charge having King's colours, and the other the Parliament's in their head or front of the battles. And so pell mell to it they went, the battle that appeared to the King's forces seeming at first to have the best, bur afterwards to be put into apparent rout.
But til two or three in the morning in equal scale continued this dreadful fight, the clattering of arms, noise of cannons, cries of soldiers so amazing and terrifying the poor men that they could not believe they were mortal, or give credit to their ears and eyes. Run away they dare not, for fear of being made a prey to these infernal soldiers, and so they with much fear and affright stayed to behold the success of the business, which at last suited to this effect. After some three hours' fight, that army which carried the King's colours withdrew, or rather appeared to fly; the other remaining, as it were, masters of the field, stayed a good space triumphing and expressing all the signs of joy and conquest, and then with their drums, trumpets, ordnance and soldiers vanished.
The poor men, glad they were gone that had so long stayed them there against their wills, made with all haste to Keinton, and there knocking up Mr Wood, a Justice of the Peace, who called up his neighbour Mr Marshall the Minister. They gave them an account of the whole passage, and averred it upon their oaths to be true; at which affirmation of theirs, being much amazed they should hardly have given credit to it, but would have conjectured the men to have been mad or drunk had they not known some of them to have been of approved integrity.
And so suspending their judgements til the next night, about the same hour, they with the same men and all the substantial inhabitants of that and the neighbouring parishes drew thither, where about half an hour after their arrival on Sunday, being Christmas night, appeared in the same tumultuous warlike manner the same two adverse armies fighting with such spite and spleen as formerly. And so departed the gentlemen and all the spectators, much terrified with these visions of horror; withdrew themselves to their houses beseeching God to defend them from those hellish and prodigious enemies.
The next night, they appeared not, nor all that week, so that the dwellers thereabout were in good hope they had been forever departed. But on the ensuing Saturday night, in the same place and at the same hour, they were again seen with far greater tumult fighting in the manner afore mentioned for four hours or very near, and then vanished, appearing again on Sunday night and performing the same actions of hostility and bloodshed. So both Mr Wood and others, whose faith it should seem was not strong enough to carry them out against these delusions, forsook their habitations thereabout, and retired themselves to other more secure dwellings. But Mr Marshall stayed, and some other, and so successively the next Saturday and Sunday the same tumults and prodigious sights and actions were put in the state and condition they were formerly.
The rumour whereof coming to his Majesty at Oxford, he immediately dispatched thither Colonel Lewis Kirke, Captain Dudley, Captain Wainman, and three other gentlemen of credit to take the full view and notice of the said business. First hearing the true attestation and relation of Mr Marshall and others, they stayed there til Saturday night following, wherein they heard and saw the forementioned prodigies, and so on Sunday, distinctly knowing divers of the apparitions or incorporeal substances by their faces, as that of Sir Edmund Verney, and others that were there slain. Of which upon oath they made testimony to his Majesty.
What this does portend, God only knows, and time perhaps will discover. But doubtlessly, it is a sign of his wrath against this land for these civil wars, which he in his good time finish and send a sudden peace between his Majesty and Parliament.
FINIS
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