THE Bishop's downfall OR, THE prelates Snare. Briefly discovering them to have been the sole authors of all our miseries both in Church and State, the fomenters of all the jealousies betwixt the King and his Sujects. And the supposed evil counsellors, who have brought this heavy accusation upon those worthy members of the House of Commons. A poem: Humbly dedicated to this Honourable City, which by sad experience have found the same to be true. Whereunto is added a hearty exhortation to all good Christians, to join in prayer, that God would be pleased to heal all the breaches, these enemies of our Church have made, and to restore a happy union betwixt the King and his People.  
By E. E. Gentleman.  
Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.  Psal. 129. verse 5.  

THE Bishop's downfall OR, The prelate's Snare.  

Dear Muse awake, In these tempestuous times  
Rouse up the rage of thy invective rhymes,  
Unto the world proclaim the plots of those  
That would Christ from his sacred throne depose,  
I mean the prelates, whose insulting pride  
Begot these evils and would more beside.  
Let no distracted fears possess thy heart,  
With humble boldness to the world impart,  
The joyful tidings and what cause we all  
Have to triumph in these proud prelates fall  
Not as they're men we do their downfall pray  
But as they're foes to Christ our King we may.   

And (reader) here observe how heaven's high hand  
Doth all their plots and consultations Brand  
With ruin to themselves: how they're betrayed?  
Caught in a snare which their own hands have made  
God's providence doth all their counsels rule  
His wisdom makes Achitophel a fool,  
Here likewise view the spring from whence doth flow  
The streams of all distempers, hence doth grow  
Those great convulsions in our Church and State  
Which makes the Christian world to wonder at,  
'Tis not the Brownist, nor the Puritan  
Nor the Tumultuous prentices that can  
Raise these combustions; they are but the fruit  
Which soon would wither if the cursed root  
Were once destroyed, 'tis these whom we may well  
Term the sole troublers of our Israel,  
These are the flaming meteors, that portend  
Destruction to our kingdom, these do bend  
Their forces, and have laboured to bring in  
That cursed Monstrous beast; the man of sin.  
These nourish supperstition mental vice  
These would the precious souls of men entice  
To idolising vanities, 'tis these  
That are the courts best parasites, they please  
The ears of Princes with their flattering baits,  
But all their counsels prove but vain deceits  
That tend to ruin, not their sovereign's good:  
They aim at honour, and they thirst for blood.  
They're those malignant spirits that oppose  
The kingdom's good, they are the kingdom's foes,  
The wholesome laws those worthies do prepare  
For all our goods, by them they blasted are,  
Like Samson's foxes they have raised a fire  
That will our state consume: but we desire  
The god of peace he would vouchsafe to heal  
The great dissensions of our commonweal  
For these conspire our ruin, and foment  
The discords twixt our King and Parliament  
These are the cursed authors of our fears  
They have breathed poison in the sacred ears  
Of Princes in all ages: and I doubt  
(If once their treacherous counsels were found out)  
They would appear the men that have abused  
Those worthy members that stand now accused  
Our choicest plants these Locusts do annoy  
These caterpillars do our fruits destroy.  
But that a venging hand that judgeth right  
Will one day bring your counsels all to light  
And then all those that 'gainst his Church conspire  
Shall find he is an all consuming fire:  
And vengeance will be recompensed on those  
That are the Churches and the kingdom's foes.   

'Twas well proud prellates, 'twas a happy hour,  
That you were sent for safety to the Tower  
Had you been out, and this division been  
A wretched case I fear yee've all been in  
The prentices with one consent doth swear  
They would in pieces all those Magpies tear.  
Here (reader) briefly mayst thou take a view  
Of what sad ruin's likely to ensue,  
Upon our state, what mischiefs are begot  
By those proud Prelates, how they cast a blot  
Upon the glory of our sovereign's fame  
How they disturb our peace, and sure the blame  
Will one day light upon their heads, that raise  
The fire of this rebellion in our days.   

Thus are the prelates proved in the state to be  
The cursed authors of our misery  
And in the Church, O there like woules they tear  
The Flock of Christ, they hunt the Lambs, they bear  
The sole command of souls, and void of sense  
They play the Tyrants o'er the conscience  
Like treacherous swains, they drive their flock to streams  
That are corrupted, and denies them means  
Of wholesome food, and wolf like to their power  
They would the sacred flock of Christ devour.  
Yea in a word should I at large relate  
What evils they have wrought in Church and State.  
How they do from God's sacred precepts vary  
How they in all things are to Christ contrary  
I might whole volumes fill yet ne'er the less  
Should not one footstepp from the truth digress  
This is a subject I confess would yield  
Abundant matter, 'tis a spacious field  
In which my muse may wander, but that I  
Have to myself proposed brevity.  
Let this suffice to let my Reader know,  
God's vengeance waits the prelates overthrow.   

YEt one word more, Since these proud imps of Rome  
Have sought our ruin, and contrived a doom  
For those brave worthies, Let's with one Consent  
Join all in prayers for our parliament  
That God would all their Consultations bless  
Add crown their Labours with a full success  
That he would grant them Courage to defend  
The Innocent from wrong: that he would send  
His angels for their guardians and likewise  
Protect them from all close Conspiracies  
That god would please to op'e our Soveragines eyes  
To view the cause of all our miseries  
And that at last he may discern twixt those  
His loyal subjects and his trayteous foes  
That all our great divisions may be  
Cemented in the band of amity  
That King and People may conjoin in one  
T' advance Christ's sceptre, and t' exalt his throne  
Which is our soul's desires, Let each one then  
That wisheth peace to Zion, say, Amen.   
FJNIS.