1607 Lamentable news out of Monmouthshire in Wales.  
CONTAINING, The wonderful and most fearful accidents of the great overflowing of waters in the said county, drowning infinite numbers of cattle of all kinds, as Sheep, Oxen, Kine and horses, with others: together with the loss of many men, women and Children, and the subversion of xxvi Parishes in january last 1607.   depiction of flood 
LONDON Printed for W. W. and are to be sold in Paul's Church yard at the sign of the Greyhound.   

To the Reader.  
REader, when these news were brought, & an importunity used to me, that I would give them some form, & bestow an exhortation on them, I was unwilling, both in regard of that short space (of less than one day which was limited to undertake the matter) and also in respect of the usual unfaithfulness of men ordinarily in reporting of such accidents as these be: whereby it often falleth out, that the relater of them reapeth much discredit. But when I could not have these just excuses taken, I began and finished this business, as the short space would permit me. And now I offer it unto thee, read it with that good affection wherewith I do present it, and I am sure, it both may and will profit thee by putting thee in remembrance why God doth punish others, that so thou mayst thyself in time look unto thine own courses, lest he proceed in the same or some more grievous manner with thee: for our vices are the serpents of our souls, stinging them to death, unless we look up unto him that was nailed upon the Cross, that so we may be cured of them, & be brought to forsake and relinquish them. Well then, seeing that it is mere wickedness to change or alter good laws, to awake strife, or wilfully to maintain it; to abate nobility, & exalt the unworthy; to banish gods servants, and to honour the graceless; to love flatterers and dispraise the virtuous & plain dealers; to embrace delights and pastimes, & neglect works of duty and office, to account vanity a mother, and pure religion a stepmother; & in a word to regard nothing but idleness, riot, and wantonness; and that the Lord useth from time to time, to reveal his wrath from heaven against these and such like impieties: the Lord of his goodness purge our land daily, more and more, from such of them as do bear any rule in it: that so God's judgements bring averted, we may have his mercies continually multiplied upon us and ourposteritie, unto the world's end.  
Amen.  
Farewell.   

Woeful news from Wales. Or The lamentable loss of divers Villages and Parishes (by a strange and wonderful Flood) within the county of Monmouth in Wales; Which happened in january last past 1607. whereby a great number of his Ma.tie Subjects, Inhabiting in those parts, are utterly undone.  
THE holy Scriptures teacheth us, that when as God had framed the Heavens, Earth, Sea, air and all that in them is, he then created Mankind the last of all: even as it were a little brief or concise Map, a sum or an abridgement of the whole worlds perfections: to the intent, that beholding is soon as he was made this comely and gloriour Theatre of nature replenished with all things profitable and delightful, either for soul or body, he might presently be put in remembrance how much he was obliged unto his and their Creator: yea admonished what occasion and cause he had to love him in true sincerity of affection, to obey his statutes in integrity of devotion, to worship and glorify him, who in infinite and abundantly ineffable mercy, had ordained him sovereign Lord and master over all his creatures. But the text doth add a point more notably to be observed: namely that the Lord made mankind even in his own Image and likeness: the which was placed not only in the erternall figure of his body, as Auidius wickedly maintained, but even both in soul and body, seeing sin doth consist in both, which is the contrary thereunto: and also that the renewing of the same again in us, is the sanctification of the one, as well as of the other: nay, as wax is apt to receive a print then clay; so the Soul being a spirit, and so nearer unto the Divine nature in the essence of it;  
It took more into it of God's Image, and did better express it then the body either did or could do, wherefore the Lords Image wherein he created our first parents, was placed partly in man's substance, especially in his soul, and in the essential parts powers, and forces of it, & partly also in certain qualities, and in a certain honour, dignity, and glory, wherewith they were adorned: for first the very substance of Adam's soul did resemble God's essence, in the simplicity, invisiblenes, & immortality thereof, and also in that power which it enjoyed to know and will.  
Again, as God is but one in the world, sustaining, quickening with life, and governing the same, so there is but one soul in the body, which being whole in every part thereof without either augmentation or diminution ruleth it, giving unto it life, sense and motion. Further also, the soul is like unto God in the faculties of the same, considering that as there is but one only divine essence in the Godhead, & yet three distinct persons in respect of their external actions, so the soul is but one, howsoever it consists of three essential faculties: the intelletive, the sensitive and the vegetative. Moreover as for the qualities of the soul, it did in wisdom, Justice the hollines resemble God, as appeareth, in that Paul exhorteth us to be renewed unto these parts of his image as the most excellent: On the other side, as for the body, it did resemble God in that immortality wherein at the first it was created: Again, the several members of the body, resembled the variety of his perfections, & therefore in respect of their divers uses they are often in the scriptures, Metaphorically ascribed to him, as hands to show us his omnipotence, and eyes to teach to us his providence: Besides, in his very body man resembled God, in regard of a certain imperious majesty conspicuous therein; but principally in his face, & countenance which caused all the living Creatures to stand in awe of him. Briefly the whole man both soul and body, did and doth still in some small measure resemble God, in that his dominion wherein as a little God, he is by the Lord appointed sovereign ruler overall things both in the earth, sea, and air. No to the devil the old Serpent, being fallen through his transgression into wretchedness and misery, and enoying the blessedness in which he saw our first pa●e 〈…〉 s were planted in earthly Paradise. he possessed the body of a serpent, & there in did come & tempt Eva the mother of us all, to disobey the Lord in tasting of the fruit which he had forbidden her & her husband upon pain of death to meddle withal. What should I say more? he drew her by his wiles to hear him accuse god of unkindness: from hearing to suspicion of his love, from suspicion unto direct rebellion against his law: she took of the meat prohibited & eat thereof. yea not so contented she did entice & allure by persuasions her husband, unto the same capital crime & office against the divine majesty, the world's creator. The fact being thus notoriously committed, the Lord came & gave his sentence upon the malefactors, namely that they should among other punishments specified in the text, return unto earth from whence they were taken:  
Thus of immortal they were made mortal, children of death and corruption, but happy it had been if this calamity had extended no further than themselves: ●las Adam was a public person, & received graces for all his posterity, and therefore if he had stood, we had likewise done so, but he falling. we fall together with him into the same calamities which sin brought him into, even into all miseries leading unto death, and death itself unto temporal and eternal, unless we be redeemed by our blessed mediator and redeemer Jesus Christ our Saviour. So that howsoever many of the old worlds patriarchs lived seven, eight, and nine hundred years, by means not only of their own temperance, but also of a singular blessing of God bestowed on them, to the end they might the better find out arts and Sciences which required long experience: fill also the world the sooner with people, have their obodience unto the Lord the more fully tried. and the more purely convey true religion unto their posterity, as not passing through the hands of many persons, yet you see still at the last they died: the power of original sin, the wages whereof is death, always at the length taking hold upon them, and because they used the benefit of their long life, not in such holy manner as the Lord required, but grew shameless in all evil courses, we see that Almighty God being moved unto wrath by their enormous vices, sent a flood upon them, and swept them away from the face of the earth, like dung and excrements, only preserving faithful Noah and his household, together with some relics of the creatures, in an Ark which he had caused him to frame for that service: and as for their posterity in Noah's lineage, who repeopled the world again, we see that the Lord did abridge their years by many hundreds from those which their forefathers did enjoy that so they and we to the worlds end might be perpetually mindful of their & our departure out of this vale of misery, wherein we have no certain habitation or inheritance, but are continually subject unto the arrest of death & hell's prison, unless in time we get all the debts of our offences canceled by being made heirs of the riches of Gods lone in his Son Christ Jesus, for death striketh with more darts than one, he hath even almost infinite ways to seize upon us, when from the Lord he hath his licence.  
Thus we see sometimes men consume away & languish: sometimes the Pestilence doth destroy them: sometime the sword, and sometimes famine: every one some thing or another according to the speech of the Poet, Happy is he that is so provided as that in deed no kind of death is sudden to him: & seeing examples use to move us, let us seriously think upon the late inundation of waters, which hath even a● unawares surprised many who little expected such an accident, that so by the due noting of it, we may be incited to prepare ourselves for some tempest in one kind or another, as terrible unto us as that hath been to them knowing that these prodigious overflowings of the waters, howsoever natural causes, as God's instruments do claim their parts in them yet they proceed from the Lords own direction, who by his punishing of others with them, doth threaten grievous calamities, even against our vice, unless I say speedy repentance, & amendment do avert his fearful wrath & iudgemen from us, apparently kindled in many kinds within these few years last passed against us. It hath already by the pen of another been related, what great harm hath been done by the deluge of waters invading Somersetsh. & covering near the Severne 20, mile in compass, to the ruin of all creatures & places which lay within the circuit: further it hath been showed that all Erent marsh is covered, & the sea got up between Barstable and Bristol as high as Bridge-water: what is done in Herefordsh Glocestersh. & divers other bordering places upon the seas, it cannot yet in special be recorded upon ground of certainty: but touching Monmothsh. in Wales, the report of one in place of authority, & that not upon a bare hearsay, is this.  
IN the month of januarie last passed upon a Tuesday, the Sea being very tempestuously moved by the winds, overflowed his ordinary Banks, and did drown 26. Parishes adjoining on the Coast side, in the foresaid Country of Monmouth-shire, the particulars whereof do follow: all spoiled by the grievous and lamentable fury of the waters.  

Matharne.  
Portescuet.  
Caldicot.  
Vndye.  
Roggiet.  
Lanihangiell.  
Ifton.  
Magor.  
Redwicke.  
Gouldenlifte.  
Nashe.  
Saint Peire.  
Lanckstone.  
wiston.  
Lanwerne.  
Christ-Church.  
Milton.  
Bashallecke.  
Saint Brides.  
Peterston.  
Lambeth.  
Saint Mellins'.  
Romney.  
Marshfield.  
Wilfricke.   
Now all kind of Cattle being for twenty four miles in length, and four in breadth, were drowned: Rakes and mows of corn torn out of their places and carried away. Again, the Sea hath beaten down at the foresaid times, a great multitude of houses, scattering and dispersing the poor substance of innumerable persons. So that the damage done in the foresaid places, both in cattle and other goods, is supposed to amount unto the value of above an hundredth thousand pounds.  
But alas, a man will give all that he hath, so that his life may be preserved & this is it which we esteem of above all worldly treasures: howsoever, as one said well of old, it being nothing but a bridle and miserable fetter, which chaineth the pure and everlasting soul, unto the vile, sinful, and corruptible body. But surely there is none either so great an Orator, or else so mighty an Enchanter as life is; for it doth persuade us unto the contrary of that which we both see & feel: for although we know our own frailty, and that we must needs die, yet what wrongs, what hatreds, what labours, & what unspeakable wretchedness will men endure, rather than leave these their clay houses, wherein they are but Tenants at Will, subject to be dispossessed at God's pleasure. Well, said the Roman wise man: That seeing the flowers of life be but lusts and pleasures, false shows, shadows, and vanities, the fruits thereof but labour, care, sickness, and tediousness, yea the tree itself but corruption and frailty? Oh what reason have men to dote upon it? why should death be so fearful unto them: especially when having their portion in Christ Jesus, they are well assured that their felicity is not in this life to be expected, but in the world to come. Into the which, Death is our ferry-man: and consequently our advantage: as the Scripture termeth him. Nevertheless, seeing life is precious, as Nature's blessing, left with us by the Lord in trust, and to be redemanded by him, and obediently yielded up by us at his pleasure, for his glory: how happy would those that endured the foresaid losses have thought themselves, if so be that they had but escaped away with their lives. But poor wretches, the most of them were drowned, by the foresaid inundation: not as though I did judge them all miserable who did die therein. For as Koper saith touching the flood which did surprise the old world: in the first judgement, wherein the transgressing Angels were to be censured, and in the last day of Assizes general: only the reprobate have been and shall be condemned, the elect saved. But in judgements that fall out between; neither the elect alone are preserved, nor the reprobate only are destroyed. And yet no doubt many of them, yea the most were profane, as the residue of all our Country is, in respect of the multitude: for pride, gluttony, drunkenness, the very Metropolitan City of all the Province, of vices, fornication, and all sorts of uncleanness, the which the Lord threateneth to punish where he findeth them, in a fearful manner: do even walk up and down like Rulers in all places. And what shall I say concerning the contempt of the ministery of the word, and the manifold wrongs continually offered even unto the most reverend and faithful Ministers of the same. Is the covetousness of our iron hard hearted age, unknown to any man? doth it not destroy and corrupt daily more and more, both Church and Common weal among us? hath it not stolen almost into every corner, and crept wei near into every heart, maring all where it cometh? But he is blind who noteth not the several kinds of oppression every where practised: and the lying and dissimulation every where used. In a word, iolenesse, one of those sins which caused Sodom to be destroyed, is most palpably to be noted in all states and conditions of men among us: both in Church and commonweal: while the Clergy doth nothing but look for livings, and leave the labours of their function: and the Gentry esteem more of their Hawks, Howndes, and other their vainer pleasures, than the godly discharging of their offices wherein the Lord hath set them? And shall we then imagine that they were only good that are gone in this calamity of waters? Certainly, as I make no question, but God hath had his faithful servants among them: so I doubt not, but that the greatest part of them were even as the rest of our Nation is at this day: lewd and profane wretches, whom the Lord hath thus plagued, for to recall us if it be possible from our filthy practices: lest at once he be provoked to pour down the full vials of his wrath upon us. And therefore, if we be wise, let other men's harms make us wary, lest custom in vice make it grow even another nature to us. Wherefore above all things, let us take heed that long escape of punishment, or the vain hope of long life do not delude us, & make us run on still into our sins like the hard horse into the battle: for our life is but like the Gourd of jonas, or the pilgrimage of jacob, the days whereof 〈◊〉 as few as evil: yea it is like unto the viston of Esdras, goodly too look upon, but vanished in a moment: And therefore, there is nothing more perillons to be entertained by us then the Mot of Epicures, (o thanatos vden pos:) death belongs not to us: seeing we are thereby brought to be careless of our actions. But to return unto our foresaid narration.  
The foresaid waters having gotten over their wont limits, are affirmed to have run at their first entrance with aswiftnesse so incredible, as that no Grayhounde could have escaped by running before them. And they yet cover twenty four miles in length, and four and more in breadth: which it the water were quite gone again, be not to be recovered within the space of five or six years, to be so serviceable ground as formerly they have been: yea, and there is no probability that that part of the Country, will ever be so inhabited again in our age as it was before this flood, howsoever it hath heretofore been reputed, the richest and the fruitfullest place in all that Country.  
Moreover, the land overflowed with the Severne sea, is valued at above forty thousand pounds by the year, only in the said Country of Monmouth, which is yet under the waters, and to he recovered again from them at the Lords good pleasure.  
Further, among other matters, these things are related as certain truths. As that a certain man and a woman heving taken a tree for their succour, and espying nothing but death before their eyes: at last among other things which were carried along in the stream, perceived a certain Tub, of great largeness to come nearer and nearer unto them, until it rested upon that Tree wherein they were: Juto which (as sent unto them by GOD'S providence) committing themselves they were carried safe, until they were cast up upon the dry shore.  
Again, of a maid ceilde, not passing the age of four years: it is reported, that the mother thereof, perceiving the waters to break so fast into her house, and not being able to escape with it, and having no clothes on it, set it upon a beam in the house, to save it from being drowned. And the matters rushing in a pace, a little Chicken as it seemeth, flew up unto it, (it being found in the bosom of it, when ●s help came to take it down) and by the heat thereof, as it is thought, preserved the child's life in the midst of so cold a tempest.  
another little child is affirmed to have been cast upon land in a Cradls, in which was nothing but a Cat, the which was discerned as it came floating to the shore, to leap still from one side of the Cradle unto the other, even as if she had been appointed steersman to preserve the small bark from the waves fury.  
Moreover one Mistress Van, a gentlewoman of good sort, whose living was an hundred pound and better by the year, is avouched, before she could get up into the higher rooms of her house, having marked the approach of the waters, to have been surprised by them and destroyed, howsoever, her house being distant above four miles in breadth from the sea.  
Besides these things in Monmouth-shiere, already specified: One Mistress Mattheus of Landaffe in Glamorgin Shire, dwelling some four miles in breadth from the Sea, is said to have lost four hundredth English Ewes. Much corn is likewise there destroyed in that Country, many houses ruinated, and many other kinds of cattle perished. The number of men that are drowned, are as yet not known to exeéede abaove twenty hundred. A multitude more than did, had perished for want of food, and extremity of cold, had not the right Honourable the Lord Herbert, son and heir to the Carl of Worcester, and sir Waltar Montague, Knight, brother unto the Recorder of London, who dwell near unto the foresaid places, sent out boats, (fetched ten miles' compass upon Wanes) to relieve the distressed. The Lord Herbert himself (as the relation is) going himself, unto such houses as he could, that were in extremity, to minister unto them provision of meat and other necessaries. And these are the things touching these foresaid places, which have been delivered as truths unto us, of undoubted verity. And there we leave them.  
As for ourselves, seeing we are all of us subject unto the like sins that others are: and that these when we daily fall into them, do like the blood of Abel, solicit the wrath and vengeance of the Lord to be powered down upon us. Let us think upon the judgements which God hath inflicted upon others for their vices, that so we may be the more averted from the like offences. Thus did David do. And the Prophet Hab: doth witness, that the grievous plagues which even in a vision he did see should came upon the Chaldeans, did make him to quake and tremble: what would he have done, it so be that he had seen the very actual execution of them? would not he have applied them unto his own person, remembering that his misery by nature was as great as any others? But no mancareth to know himself and his own deservings: every one dalighteth to mark his brethren, and their infirmities, being therein like unto those Lamiaes or Faicies: concerning which, Plutarch speaketh, who when they went abroad, filled their heads with eyes, but when they came home again, plucked them out, and put them up in boxes: As for his own breath, each one thinketh it to be sweet enough, as the Proverb speaketh. The Lord of his mercy grant, that we may learn in time to be wise unto our own health and salvation, lest that these water-floods in particular, prove but forerunners unto some scarefull calamities, more general.  
FINIS.