Hell's Destruction. BY The Lady Elinor Douglas.  Apocal. 
Behold, the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison, that you may be tried; and you shall have tribulation ten days, &c.  
Printed in the year 1651.   

Hell's Destruction.  
Behold, the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have Tribulation Ten days, &c.  
Apoc.  
MOst Learned and honoured judges, with whom so precious restless Time, of which as who can be over frugal, shunning therefore Multiplicity; long process but wearisome to the wise: Seeing then our Laws how balanced with God's Law its profound Precepts, said to be founded thereon, and Reason in its purity consonant thereto, otherwise hath with it no affinity.  
Emboldens to present this paradise Posey, durable precedents which too circumspect wherein ye cannot be, hereof as ensues.  
Adam that first Lord Chief justice or judge, before whom the Lord God brought every Creature formed of the Earth, to see what he would call them; and whatsoever he called every living Creature, that was the name thereof: of a certain admits of no wrong or contrary Names whatsoever in any Courts of Record to be legal or answered unto. As these inform, accords with the former, the judge of quick and dead; where demanded 
Consisting of about 6000 Foot and 700 Horse, the length of time's Foot, the distracted Time Aged ear ●000 years, he Legton also, &c. The Dutch styled graus and Boors their late loss put into the Reckoning, Mat. 8. Mark 5. Luk, &c.  first, What his Name was? before obtained a pass for that baptised Herd the Gentiles Prototype doubtless, the Devil his Godfather; who made answer, saying, Legion, for they were many; he resident (as it were) in Hell, among the Graves distracted, &c.  
Thus as we see and know irrational Creatures, these of several kinds retain their proper Names; and very Devils not debarred theirs. Nevertheless that Dominion have over them, Man the Little World, to Angels not much inferior, deemed no little wonder, as though confined to a lower Region than they, suffer ourselves, worse than Bruits undergo Names enjoined utterly false, instanced as here the dead child like in stead of the living laid in her Bosom, disputed in Solomon's presence; whereby no less than bereft both of her good Name and Liberty, witness this their erroneous warrant of Arrest, Ecce vera copia.  
Elinor Lady Davers alias Douglas, committed to Woodstreet-Compter by Steedman Officer to the Lord Major (July 17.) 1646. As true that might have styled her Lord Major, &c. for any relation between Davers and Douglas: But by a nonsense Alias a seeming connexion far from Holy writs Example, Slime in stead of mortar, and brickbats for firm Stone, with it dispenses not; Confusion of that consequence.  
Whence follows next Simon Magus alias Peter, &c. Saints and Devils become fellows; also Fool and Racha: what not? as out of the path of his Commandments: of warrants that latitude allowed them, one Name because lighted on, matters not how many false beside, so at all with logicks' definition or Reason, agrees not, authorized by the proviso (Alias) the meaning of it; sometime or otherwise &c. though she never afore at any time called by the aforesaid Name belonging to another Tribe or Family; He that calls the Stars by their Names (as it were) Male and Female, those lights: where joins names, no such Bills of Divorce tolerates neither what Antiquity or Custom either occasions, as referred to those judicious, the Sequel of what concernment.  
Lastly wherewith even whose additionals Abraham & Sarah's, consists but of a letter both alike old and new consenting in one. Also Paul for Saul, one so cautious that way, witness in mentioning the said patriarchs Blessing as well observes, saying, Not Seeds, as of many, &c. but Seed, &c.  
And so much for that, They would have said, &c. in stead of alias: All they can allege or say for themselves so contradictory to Sense and Verity, better to be justified by some blind slow Belly Cretians such Vipers, then by those interested in the Name of Christians, who would be unwilling to Subscribe to any other.  
And hereupon of her false Imprisonment undergone; so many years, If when the cause of the Law ceases, than ceases the Law itself: wherefore when the Adversary detains the work, for which the Bond was entered into, occasioned it, why should he keep it, and her person in hold both? or by what justice and Equity stands such an Execution any longer afoot or in force, she having been since put to the charge for Imprinting the same all over, for which was acknowledged the said Obligation of Sixty pounds, no benefit whereby accrueing to her, by a certain Printer, one Pain, upon whose importunity and protestation 'twas obtained.  
Another Quaere, since Scandalous Names bear Action to be termed Bankrupt, &c. why unjust cutthroat Actions what the Adversary pleases, no Redress in that case; as amounting to Hundreds no few by this Broken Printer and his Consorts, the burden of them, no short furrows ploughed, &c. By City unmerciful Adonizebeks, unmindeful of his Confession, as he had done, God had requited him, Threescore and ten had dismembered them, &c. And Abimelech how rewarded, doing execution on his Seventy Brethren, a woman his Executioner (Judges 9) laying on himself (as it were) violent hands, caused one to slay him, not impertinent here to unmerciful Executions.  
With the millstones lighting on his Head, a presaging to the Press, and Majorship both, by those several Tables under which so many fed by him, of his Thumbs to be pared and Great-Toes.  
And what Figs and Grapes such Thistles and Thorns produces, proceeding therewith the plot of this cutthroat Fellow; which aforesaid Arrest in his own House, who to draw her thither feigned had lost the Copy, &c. The ready way for compassing their desperate Ends, supposed in having her life at mercy, being sent to the Compter, locked into her Chamber by the Keeper: Not long after (she all unready, &c.) between two of them carried down thence, instantly shut and bolted was into the Dungeon-Hole, hell's epitome, in the dark out of call or cry, searching first her Coats pockets: Frustrate that way, with the Key took away the Candle, there left in their Pest-house on the wet floor to take up her lodging, beyond any draught, by so many poisonous Vermin harboured: Like disquieted Spirits setting up fearful several Notes, coursing about, &c.  
About an hour after, when▪ as no need of Sun, Moon or other (Anno 1646. July 17.) whereof notice Extraordinary taken about the City, they brought her again to a Chamber, That Night till day break, the Heavens without intermission flashing out Lightnings, as noonday; The Element like a Casemate standing open, without Thunder at all, or any Rain, those continued fireworks notwithstanding.  
Which time twelvemonth that Adonizebek Lord Major was committed to the Tower, and his Brethren (Anno 47.) when the Armies unexpected arrival at the Whitsuntide, &c.  
As for the perfidious Printer how happened with him, soon spewed out of House and Home, his wife within few days dead, in whose Brothers unhappy Name the Bond taken.  
And so when the smoky Bottomless Pit to be opened, the purifying days over, oppressed Captives, seasonable for Elevating their weary Heads, Signs in Heaven and Earth, Sea and Waters, contribute their Testimony, no mute obscure Tokens, like the floods voice uttering theirs, unbound as it were, clapping their hands for company; perplexed people at their wits-end (Luke 21.) on all sides in that unparalleled Thraldom, mutinying, than these Uncircumcised their Commissions date expired: As he that reads that Magna Charta the Prophet Isaiah's Good Tidings for them 
Cap. 61. Luke.  bound, &c. those doors to be unbar'd.  
Of which groaning Days thus, alluding to their month of Travel the Tenth, or lying in, paralleled with the ten Persecutions, Ten days shall have Tribulation; The Mysterious Beasts 
Revel. 2.  Reign, crowned or mitreed with his Ten Horns, charged with open Blasphemy, spewed out by so many Heads, against the Tabernacle, the presence, &c. opening no narrow Throat, repaid Lex talionis, that leads into Captivity, &c. Rev. 13.  
And so much for the year of Redemption, arrived that Haven, Tokens of it likened to the Springs infallible Messengers of summer's approach, the figtree and the rest, proclaimed by Heavenly Heralds, which Powers above shaken, like those Boughs, others bids beware the Tree or Ax.  
Witness our New Star in Cassiopei, the French taking essay of its influence, that Herodian Massacre not long after it, seen 74 years before the year 1644. the heavy day of Reckonings forerunner; of which Great-Seal day John heard the number (Rev. 7.) even sealed the year of God Ao Dom. 44. observing the motion of the former, that in the East 74 years afore Jerusalem's judgement, the numbered Time of our Captivity or coming out of Heathen Babylon's Purgatory, of whose Habeas Corpus sealed writs a Discharge thence of the restless Abyss, touching Obligations sealed and the like: These an express command (Rev. 9) commanded henceforth not 
showing they have a King 〈◊〉 them, &c. (of the Roman Faction) where those called cavaliers or Royalists, and coin dollars and Half Crown Pieces adored (Daemoniae) (he heard the Number of them) with Pieces of Ordnance, the Fleet or Navies preparation by those hideous hieroglyphics signified, &c.  to harm or touch any such, but those branded or charged with murder and Theft, &c. (ver. 20.) breach of his Law, the Commandments.  
And for this time so much, prefixed fixed or set times though said to be but a certain time for an uncertain, and the like, questionless of highest concernment those undervalued most, or least in request, because flatters not or torments them, termed wild notions and brainsick, &c. Likewise for uncertain Names on record, Darius as it were for David; like that Dispute about her having five (Ioh.) Bidden Go call her Husband: whence follows, if Davers one, than (otherwise) called Douglas, he none of hers either.  
As sarthermore for tedious apprenticeships their farewell, together with that granted, What is not true is false; Ergo, Libel bastard slips, and sinister actions imposed on his people, unlawful to be fathered on God's word, his Law thereon either erring not in a tittle.  
FINIS.  
From the Fleet. Easter 1651.