A Grievous LAMENTATION OVERDO THEE O ENGLAND, OR, The greatest part of thy Inhabitants, who have withstood the Day of their Visitation.  
With the WORD of the LORD to thy Rulers and Teachers, who continue persecuting and oppressing the dear Children and People of the Most High, whom he hath raised in thee, and sent to warn thee, that thou mightest have repent and been saved from the wrath to come, which now shall speedily overtake thee.  
Through one born within thy borders, William Bayly.  
And he spread it before me, and it was written within and without, and there was written therein, Lamentations, and Mourning, and Wo.  Read Ezek. chap. 2. throughout. 
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, (thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee) how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings, and ye would not, Behold your House is left unto you desolate; verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation, Matt. 23.36, 37.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1663.   

A grievous Lamentation over thee Oh England, etc.  
OH! England! England? Is it thy Lot to be the hissing and the astonishment of Nations? Hath 7. days passed over thee, & thou yet remainest (as the Beasts of the field) without understanding? Must it needs be that many of my Children must shake of the dust of their feet against thy Rulers and Teachers, and turn to other Nations, who shall rise up in judgement against thee, because in thee mighty works have been done, which if the same had been done in Tire and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repent? Niniveh shall rise up in judgement against thee, who repent at the preaching of Ionas; for behold a greater than Ionas hath preached in thy streets. But what shall I say? must the day of thy visitation pass over thy head, and the Summer be ended, and thou not saved? Must thou be made an example, Oh England, to the whole earth? Must the noise of thy fall and ruin make the Nations afar off tremble: and to be awakened, and fear before the Lord, and seek after his salvation? Must the report come from thee, that must strike the earth with amazement, and cause the ears of them that hear it to tingle? Oh England! England! what shall I do for thee? My bowels! my bowels! My heart is pained within me, and I am in sorrow and distress for thee, as a woman in Travel. How often hath the Lord of Hosts of late sounded in mine ears that thy visitation is nigh over? Thy visitation is nigh over, or else I must say (as Jeromiah did,) the Lord hath deceived me.  
Oh England how oft have the pleasant showers of the visitations from on high descended upon thee but where, and amongst whom doth the fruits appear to the praise and glory of the dresser? Is not thy heaven brass, and thy earth become iron? Are not the clouds returning after the rain in thee? Is not the Sun, and the Moon, and the Light darkened in thee? And is not thy golden bowl broken? and the wheel at the Cistern? and art not thou going to thy long home, and the mourners about the streets? Must thou die without knowledge and be buried in the sea of misery? Must thy name become a Proverb? and thy remembrance an astonishment? what nation was like to thee, in the days that are gone? what opportunities hast thou had of being made the praise of the whole earth. But now thou art become hardened, as if thou were raised up, that God's power and wonders might be made known upon thee. Must thou indeed be destroyed, as God overthrew Egypt? Is Sodom thy sister? Must the plagues and the judgements that are written, come upon thee? Must thou fall as the handful after the Harvestman, and to be cut down as the grass before the Mower? Must not just Lot, whose soul is vexed with thy unlawful deeds, be first delivered? Must not Noah be in the Ark before the flood comes? Then shall the destroyer pass through thee as a Giant to run his race, and thou shalt be destroyed with a sore destruction▪ what Lamentation shall I take up for thee, O England? How have my bones been as shattered, & my sinews as torn in the remembrance of thy day? How doth my belly tremble, and my lips quiver at the feeling of the sense of the burden that is coming upon thee? Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men, that I might go from this People, and leave them. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night! then should I be eased. How deep is the sense of thy Calamity entered into my soul, which makes me stagger like a drunken man, and as a reed shaken with the wind? Oh my soul, why art thou so disquieted for this people? why dost thou not cast off their burden, and be still? Why dost thou meditate their terror in the night seasons? Why art thou as as a bird ready to hasten into nations a far off? Why doth thy life draw as with a cart-rope into the uttermost-parts of the earth.  
Is thy native Country become a strange Land? Or dost thou love strangers more than these? Oh that I might know why thou weepest thus in secret, and art become as a sorrowful woman? Hast thou lost a son, or dost thou desire a son like Hannah? What aileth thee, Oh my soul! that thou thus travelest night and day in sorrow, as a mother to bring forth, or as a child that crieth for its mother? Do none of thy brethrens partake of thy burdens, and do not their bowels feel they distresses? yes surely; Is it not because I did once love thee, O England! and because I now pity thee, seeing thy dreadful Doom, that I thus weep over thee? How art thou fallen, O Land, by thine iniquity! Even thy Kings and thy Rulers, thy Teachers and thy Leaders, thy Judges and thy Captains, thy Mighty men and thy Mean men, the Master & the Scholar, the Mistress and her Maid, the Buyer and the Seller? O the Darkness, such as was in Egypt, which may be felt! O the hardness of heart, like an Adamant harder than flint! O the blindness, the born-blindness that is in thee, and covering thee as a garment! O the Pride and fullness, lifted-upness, impudence, and height of Ambition that is in he! Can it be higher? or can it be uttered by the tongue of man? O thou Lucifer, that thus dwellest, actest and reignest in thy Children! God's eternal judgements shall be upon thee, and his vengeance shall consume thee, and the day is at hand. O the wantonness, Stubbornness profaneness, lewdness, crookedness, cruelty, hypocrisy, deceit and oppression that is in thee, O thou England! Thou hast killed the Prophets of the Lord, & stoned and persecuted them that he hath sent unto thee. O that thou wert not blinder than the Sodomites, and darker than Egypt, and deafer than the Adders, and more brutish than the Beasts of the field; then mightest thou hear or see something of thy Visitations. What is persecution and cruelty about Religion and Worship yet found in thee? Are thy Teachers yet like Briars, and thy Rulers like Thorns in the sides of the tender Lambs of the most High? Be advised, O Land, what thou dost against his people; For God hath yet a small Remnant to be gathered out of thy bowels, whose cries and groans he hath heard, and will plead their Cause against all their oppressors by the fire of his jealousy, which shall consume the Briars and Thorns in one day.  
O thou England, my native Country! Art thou become a wilderness? Is the Remnant of the Lord in thee like the Apple tree in the midst of the trees of the forest, and as a Lily among Thorns? Are the Tearers, Devourers, Scratchers and Prickers yet found in thee? Is not the Land cursed that bringeth forth these, after so much rain & fruitful seasons? And is not their end burning? Yea everlasting burning.  
What! is preaching the Gospel of Christ Jesus freely and publicly in Villages, Towns and Cities become a transgressions? What! Must the meetings of the dear children and Servants of God be called unlawful, and be broken up by the lewd drunkards, swearers and profane persons, scoffers and scorners in thee, as mine Eyes have seen, and trickled down with Tears to behold it, with an heart breaking Lamentation over thee? O England! England! that I could plead with thee, as with one man face to face. Didst thou ever persecute me and my Brethren before we turn our faces towards the Paradise of God, from whence we were driven in Adam by transgression? Didst thou ever abuse, beat, or imprison me? didst thou ever reproach or revile me, when I walked in vanity, wantonness and pride, and in the foolish fashions and gestures of this World? Nay, didst thou not say well of me, when Gods witness in my own Conscience did reprove and condemn me? Didst thou ever cast me into Prison for breaking Gods Laws, for lying, or for swearing, or any other kind of profaneness? But how soon didst thou lay hold on my innocent throat, when I began to turn my face towards Zion, and to speak the language of Canaan? How often hast thou dragged me upon the stones of thy streets, and smitten me on the cheekbone, and plucked off mine hair which God hath numbered? How often have thy Priests, Teachers, and chiefest professors abused me? How often have thy soldiers mocked and beaten me, with the rude people shouting and renting my garments? How often have I been imprisoned since my heart was turned with brokenness and desires to seek the living God in truth and righteousness? Surely above these ten times as unjustly as a child from its Mother's breast. Yet for all this I never sought revenge against thee, but often wept in secret to my God for thee, who did still quiet my heart in the contentedness of his own life and will, seeing his Counsel and end through all these things. And I am yet so far from seeking revenge, though now again in bonds, through the unjust dealing of some of thy Priests and Rulers, that I have said in my heart with tears unto God, O that I might lay down my life for England, that I might die for England; which the Lord knoweth, I could freely do, that she might yet repent and be saved. In whose presence I have freely forgiven all mine enemies that have thus dealt with me, and can say to Richard Brown, the greatest amongst many called Aldermen of London, as my dearly beloved Brother E. B. did on his death bed, the Lord forgive thee, if it be yet possible; whose prisoner he died, and yet lives in my bosom, and the rest of my brethren's, as he is a Martyr of Jesus. Oh thou England! Have not we the witness of Heaven and Earth, that we are the Children of the most High, whom thou hast thus abused and persecuted, rob and spoiled? and dost thou think to prosper, by persevering in these things against them? Nay, let me once more tell thee from the everlasting God, That it shall be thy ruin. What canst thou do with us, who fear not man, who can but kill the body, and after that hath power to do no more? We have given up our lives freely to live and to die unto our God, and to hold fast his Name which is truth and righteousness, and to confess him before men while we have a being; and thou shalt never overcome us though thou shouldst kill or imprison to death all our persons or bodies, if it were possible; thy Fathers have not overcome the Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs of Christ Jesus in the days past; neither haste thou overcome them, whom thou hast beaten and imprisoned to death among us in these days; but they have overcome thee, and their Life is risen again; of which we are witnesses; and it's with us, and remains with us for ever; whose blood cries loud in the Ears of the Lord Almighty, who will avenge and plead their Innocent cause. O England! are thy Rulers yet again saying, that the Quakers will spread and overrun the Land? Have not I heard them say, we must prevent them, lest they become very Numerous, or more than we▪ and have not thy teachers run and complained to them, that they might be suppressed, yes surely in my sight and hearing. And was not this the language of Egypt, their Magicians, wisemen, and Rulers? let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and become great in Number, etc. And were not the plagues poured forth upon that Land till Pharioh and his Host were destroyed? and is not God the same, and his seed and children the same, for ever?  
Hear, O England! and all thy Rulers and teachers, and all the Inhabitants of spiritual Egypt and Sodom, thus saith the Lord God, Your Counsel shall come to nought, your purposes shall be abolished and made void, your rage is in vain, your subtlety and wisdom shall be confounded, my dread shall fall upon you, ye light and vain rulers, who have taken upon you to sit in Judgement against my people. Behold you shall sit in the dust, and you shall gnaw your tongues for pain and vexation, the day of your howling is at hand, in which you shall cry to the Rocks and Mountain, to hid you from my presence. Ye hypocrites, ye wanton ones, will ye not tremble at my presence? have not I set bounds to the Sea? that though it toss and mount up? roar and swell, it cannot pass my decree. Will you strive with your Maker, ye potsherds? will ye fight against God. Are you stronger than he that made Heaven and Earth, the Sea and all things therein by his Power? Am not I he that overthrew Sodom, and cut Rahah, and wounded the Dragon, and drowned the Egyptians in the Sea. Behold I will put my hook in your nose, and my Bridle in your Jaws, & turn you backwards ye devourers, ye beasts of the field, and my people shall spread, and my seed shall increase, and be as the sand, and as the stars of Heaven; and the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of my Glory, as the waters covers the sea. And you shall not prevail against them. Nay, though the whole earth should be gathered together against my people, they shall not prosper, but be confounded and broken to pieces, and become as the chaff before the wind, and as stubble before a consuming fire; I the Lord have spoken it.  
When they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them; then stood there up one in the counsel, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a Doctor, of Law etc. And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to your selus what ye intent to do as touching these men, etc.  
And now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone for if this work be of men it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye cannot everthrow it, least happily ye he found even to fight against God. Read Acts. 5.27. to the end, and consider it.  
From my prison Chamber at Hartford the 3d. Month. 1663.  
THE END.